


Elemental Gemstones

by xCabooseRTRvB



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, Maybe others?, Supernatural Gemstones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2017-12-23 12:06:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/926211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xCabooseRTRvB/pseuds/xCabooseRTRvB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hey guys, what do you think they are?" Ray asks as they all turn to Ryan.</p><p>"Look, I may be smarter than you guys and finished college, but that doesn't mean I know everything." Ryan replies.</p><p>"Which means you have no idea?" Geoff sums up and Ryan nods. He sighs, "Well, no one will touch the gems until we figure out what they are and how they work. I will take them." Geoff holds his hand out with his gem already shown. They each put theirs in Geoff's hand and he closes his hand gently. "We'll continue the game soon, let me just put these in a safe place."</p><p>Gemstones with elemental powers and six idiots found them. This discovery will change their lives, but what'll happen when it becomes a problem and one of their friends becomes a monster? Will this monster be the end of them or will they find a way to stop him in time to save all their lives?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gemstones

**Author's Note:**

> This is really hard for me to write, so expect slow updates, but I will try my best! Also, I'm starting school so that means that all my stories will have slow updates.

The guys are playing an intense game and whoever wins gets the Tower of Pimps. The objective is that they have to find and mine at least three pieces of coal, iron, gold, diamond, lapis lazuli, red stone, emerald, and nether quartz or whoever has the most points. They can gain extra points by collecting more of the needed ore. Each piece of coal is one point, iron is each two points, gold is four, diamond is six, lapis is one point, red stone is also one point, emerald costs eight points, and nether quartz is two points.

Currently, Ryan is leading with 46 and is trying to find two more pieces of emerald, resulting in a finished game if he does find them. Ray is close behind with a 41 and is still trying to find all three emerald pieces and one piece of diamond. Michael is surprisingly in third with a 38, having already found three pieces of emerald near the beginning of the game and is trying to find one gold and one diamond. Geoff has 36 points and trying his best to find one last emerald ore, which would also result in a finished game. Jack has only 24 because he had been killed by Michael recently and is looking for two gold, three diamond, lapis lazuli, three nether quartz, and three emerald. Gavin, who recently had died by a skeleton, currently has 15 points and is looking for three gold, three diamond, red stone, three emerald, and one nether quartz.

"Alright, ore check." Geoff communicates to the others while mining through stone, but only heres static. "Guys? Hey guys, can you hear me?"

There was a muffled noise on the other line and then static. Geoff takes out a holographic pad and presses a few buttons. What appears on the screen is:

_JackP suffocated_

_MLP Michael went up in flames_

_BrownMan drowned_

_BM Vagabond got struck by lightning_

Geoff stares at it for a moment, then notices one person didn't die. "Gavin! Gavin are you okay?!" Geoff waits impatiently for his answer. "Gavin, answer!"

"Geoff? W-what happened to the others?" Gavin asks holding a black circle in his hand and holding his holopad. "They all died mysteriously." Gavin states a hint of concern in his voice.

"I don't know, but meet me in Achievement City." Geoff replies.

"Alright, I'll be there in a jiffy." Gavin mines his way back to the surface. While mining, he runs out of torches and now has to mine in complete darkness. What Gavin didn't expect was to be able to completely see everything around him even in complete darkness. He mines one more block and the light that shines through just blinds him and causes him to move back into the cave. He squints and exits the cave heading to Achievement City.

The older man tries to find a way back to the surface and in the process he finds a blue crystal. He mines it out of the stone and catches it before it hits the floor. He examines it and the temperature around him decreases, but it felt normal to him. He breathes through his mouth and he can see his breath, "GEOFF!" He hears through his earpiece and he looks up from the stone piece and finally finds a way out of the cave he was in.

Geoff spots Achievement City in the distance and the dirt under him starts to freeze up even through the boots he's wearing; leaving icy footsteps as he heads to Achievement City. To his left, he can see Gavin sprinting towards Achievement City and trying his best not to slow down. Geoff starts to sprint and arrives at Achievement City just in time to see Jack walk out of his house. "Hey, Jack, what happened to you?"

Jack turns to Geoff, "I honestly have no idea, but some rubble fell over me. I have no idea how it happened." They walk together to the middle of Achievement City as Gavin comes with Ryan.

"Who screamed my name earlier?" He turns to the other three, but they just shrug. "Alright, where's Ray and Michael?"

"Over here!" They turn to the voice and they see Ray holding up Michael, who has some scorch marks on him and soot. "His house caught on fire randomly and I had to rebuild it."

"How does your house catch on fire?" Jack asks with a tone that made him sound like he was talking to Gavin.

Ray looks down at Michael worriedly after a short period of silence. "Michael? You okay?" He then feels his hands start to warm up and he lets go of Michael once they were burning. "Agh." He shakes his hands and blows on them. "He's heating up somehow."

"Well, cool him down." Gavin says.

"Better said than done. Wait a minute." Ray takes a deep breath and little droplets of water randomly starts going towards him and form around his hand. They guys stare in awe that Ray can control water around him. The water around his hands then forms a small sphere just above his hand and he levitates it over Michael's head and it pops water dropping all over him. What the guys didn't expect was to see the droplets of water evaporate once they came in contact with Michael's skin or clothing.

Geoff then remembers about his icy experience and walks over to Michael putting a hand on his shoulder. "Geoff, you're gonna burn your hand!" Ray says, but Geoff cools down Michael just enough for him to control his powers again.

Michael takes a big breath, "Thanks Geoff, I needed that."

"No problem, buddy." Geoff stands and offers a hand which Michael gladly takes. He pulls him up and asks, "Okay, how did you guys die anyway?"

"Did you not look at your holopad? It says there." Ray says.

"How?" Geoff asks forcefully.

Ray looks around as if he was about to tell a secret and whispers, "I kinda drowned myself." 

"I burnt myself to a crisp."

"I came up from my hole and right then and there lightning stroke."

"Rocks crumbled over me and I couldn't breathe."

"This sounds like confessions. How did you bloody all do that?"

Ryan opens his pack and takes out a triple lightning shaped, golden gem, "I found this before I died." Jack looks over and takes out a triple mountain shaped gem that was lightly brown. Ray looks through his organized pack and shows the others a triple wave colored with three different shades of blue. Michael opens his clenched hand and a flame shaped gem lay there. Geoff and Gavin exchange looks and they both show the others their gems. Geoff's was a single blue crystal and Gavin's was a circle shape that was pure black. They were in a circle and their gems sparkled when all the gems were showed and they put their hands down; not noticing the sparkle of the gems.

"Hey guys, what do you think they are?" Ray asks as they all turn to Ryan.

"Look, I may be smarter than you guys and finished college, but that doesn't mean I know everything." Ryan replies.

"Which means you have no idea?" Geoff sums up and Ryan nods. He sighs, "Well, no one will touch the gems until we figure out what they are and how they work. I will take them." Geoff holds out his hand with his gem already shown. They each put theirs in Geoff's hand and he closes his hand gently. "We'll continue the game soon, let me just put these in a safe place." With that, Geoff leaves to his house and the others wait continuing the conversation of what the gems are.


	2. Team Lads' Powers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray has a little trouble, Michael saves him. Then they get in a little trouble. Ray gets yelled at and Gavin hurts two of his friends.

The guys are continuing their game and some of them are practicing their newfound powers instead of playing the game. Specifically, Ray, Michael, and Gavin; those three are curious about anything  and everything. Ray plays the levitating water around him and even tries to attack a skeleton archer with a whip of the water. He sees a glimpse of purple and starts to back away, dropping the water.

The Enderman turns to Ray's direction and Ray accidentally looks at it. It walks towards him and raises the block to throw it, but Ray remembers that Endermen don't like water. So, he collects all the water he can and before the Enderman can attack him, he soaks the Enderman and it teleports away; trying to shake off the water. It was his chance to run, but he just stands there and looks around; seeing that the water he splashed the Enderman with also splashed onto the lit torches around him. He looks down the dark cave and the purple figure teleports back in front of him and looks as mad as ever. It walks forward looking straight at Ray who is trying his best to find an escape route.

He closes his eyes thinking it's the end for him, but the cave lights up again and the Enderman is now burning and trying to run away. Ray looks around and sees Michael on one side with his hand outstretched, "Thanks."

"Is this what you do, fight Endermen even though we aren't even skilled enough yet?" Michael sighs and puts his hand down. "You're as crazy as ever, but you never seize to amaze me. Let's go before it comes back."

"You say that like you didn't kill it." They start walking out the cave and Michael makes a fireball in his hand.

"I probably didn't because Endermen are hard to kill. Anyway, Ray you have to be more careful. Remember, you only have four lives left and after that say goodbye to all your memories as a Hunter. I'm not gonna let you waste it on some stupid testing on your newfound powers."

"Awwww, you sound like you care~! I feel so loved!" Ray beams smiling.

"Shut up." Michael says. "But I ain't losing anyone else... Not after what happened to Lindsay." Michael frowns and the mood around the two suddenly gets depressing. Michael stares at the floor with one of his hands in his pockets and Ray looking away from him. A small fire circle goes around Michael and didn't notice it and Ray takes a step back.

Ray rubs the back of his neck, "Sooo, uhhh, where are we going?" Ray asks, trying to change the subject.

Michael looks ahead and the circle disappears, "Back to Achievement City. We contacted each other because Ryan had won the tower, but apparently you forgot your earpiece at your house and Geoff was worried something horrible might happen. You know Geoff, if his fatherly instinct kicks in then he's desperate to do anything possible to get his boys back or save them from whatever. He doesn't care what he loses as long as his boys are safe."

"We've both known him long enough to know that and we're still kinda new to Achievement City." Ray studies the flame just above Michael's hand. "You seem to be controlling your powers very easily."

He looks down at his hand, "This is only minor level of my power. Fire is a hard thing to control. Once it starts it burns forever until it gets put out." Michael takes out his holopad and slides his finger across it and it shows the layout of the cave. "It was hard to find you, so I had to use the new app made by Rooster Village. I don't trust the village anymore."

Ray looks at him, "You can't keep a grudge on that village just because of what happened with Lindsay."

"Ray!" Michael snaps. "Just please, don't bring it up ever again..." They stay silent all the way through the cave and walk back to Achievement City in the dark of night. They hear a groan and Michael whispers, "This is why we should always have our earpieces and holopads with us." He opens up his holopad again and looks around with the holopad in front of him. A wave passed on the screen and it showed a spider jockey behind a few trees and a creeper just to their right behind one tree. Michael quickly searches for an easy route and spots one with ease. He nudges Ray and motions for him to follow. He nods and they quietly walk past the dangerous creatures and try their best not to agro any of them.

Once past most of the monsters, they ran all the way back to Achievement City, but Michael stops Ray by outstretching his arm and Ray looks ahead. They hide behind a tree and Michael tries to look past the tree, but the creature turns their direction and Michael retracts his head from view. The curious creature walks slowly over and hissing starts near the tree. Michael grabs Ray's arm and pulls him away from the tree and the tree explodes when they came out of range. The other creatures become alerted and they approach the pair as they back up into a mountain with no way out. The creatures close in and Michael looks around then at Ray who was trying to back away further.

The ledge of the mountain was too high for one man to reach, "Ray, get out of here." He says.

The younger man shakes his head, "I can't leave you! I'm staying right here."

"Don't argue with me!" Michael pulls Ray and pushes him up to the ledge, but Ray refuses to leave his friend. "GO! Only one of us is going to survive and that's going to be you!" He pushes him far enough where Ray has to get up on the ledge. He does and he looks down, "Here, Ryan hates it when he has to keep making more of them." Michael takes off his earpiece and he throws up the earpiece and holopad. Ray catches them and the monsters close in on Michael. "I'll see you in Achievement City." Ray stands and runs a few steps then hears explosion after explosion and he winces. He turns his head slightly to look behind him, but decides against it and starts running to Achievement City holding the stuff Michael gave him close.

Ray arrives at Achievement City panting and Geoff notices his arrival first, "Ray! Where's Michael?" He asks as they run over.

"He should be here in a few." Ray looks over to Michael's house and the others immediately understood what he meant. He walks over to the house and takes a quick peek inside. He gasps and drops the stuff, "H-he should be in the bed by now." The others come over and Ray hits the wall of Michael's house, "Stupid, stupid! I shouldn't have left him!"

Geoff grabs Ray's shoulder and forces him to turn around, "You _left_ him!"

"He told me to and even though I refused, he still pushed me up the ledge." Ray explains.

Geoff takes a step forward, but Jack places a hand in front of him causing him to stop. "Both of you calm down. We don't know if Michael even died, he could've survived somehow. After all, the powers he has may have saved him."

Jack's hand starts to freeze to the point of burning. He retracts his hand and the ground and the air around them starts to freeze, "You think I care about those! Ray, you better find him if you wanna stay here in Achievement City!"

"You think it was my decision to leave him!" Ray snaps as water starts to form on the ground next to Geoff then it builds up around Geoff. "I would never leave one of my friends!" The water starts to freeze up, but it continues to build around Geoff slowly.

"Guys, what's happening?" Jack takes steps back with his arms out forcing Ryan and Gavin to back away as well.

"I don't care about that! I care about where Michael is!"

"If you didn't want this to happen then maybe you shouldn't have sent him alone!"

"Maybe you shouldn't have left your earpiece and holopad at your house!"

"Why are you blaming me?! I didn't do anything!"

"Exactly! You didn't do anything to help Michael get out of there! You're a selfish little-"

"SHUT UP!!!" The two stop yelling and look over to Gavin, who's hair was turning to a shade of white. He outstretches his hand towards them and the dark around them come up from the ground and starts encasing the two.

"Gavin, stop!" Jack tries to move him, but he hits a forcefield that turned a shade of black once hit then turns back to clear. Jack tries to hit the shield again, but was stopped by Ryan.

Ryan looks at Jack and shakes his head slowly and points to Gavin, "Look, do you think you can stop him?!" Jack puts his arm down and looks at Gavin then hears yelling in the distance.

"Gavin... please..." Ray says weakly, like the darkness was draining him of his life.

"GAVIN!!!! STOP!!!" The two cry in pain as the darkness almost fully covers them.

Jack and Ryan looks past Gavin seeing someone, dressed as a bear, running. "GAVIN!" The bear dressed man yells and Gavin's eyes widen. His hair slowly turns back to it's natural color and slowly lowers his hand as he realizes what just happened. The shield around Gavin and the darkness around the two both shatter and Ray and Geoff fall to the ground trying to catch their breaths. Gavin falls to the ground as well as Michael runs over and kneels beside him. Michael looked beat up: soot smeared his face, scratches and bruises covered his arms and legs, and his clothes were torn up. He had blood splatters on his shirt and jacket. "Gavin?" He looks at the creeper dressed man, concerned.

"...Michael?... You're okay." The brit forces a small smile and slowly sits up. He looks at Ray and Geoff who were being helped up by Jack and Ryan, "Sorry lads, I couldn't control myself."

"It's fine, buddy. X-Ray and Vav right?" Ray says smiling weakly.

"Can we forget this ever happened?" Gavin asks them. They exchange looks with each other then nod. "I have a better reputation to keep. Especially with Slow Mo Ville, but not so much with Rooster Village." Gavin pauses realizing what he brought up. He turns to Michael, "Sorry, I forgot."

"It's fine. Like you said, let's forget this ever happened." Michael stands and offers a hand to the brit. He gladly takes it and Michael pulls him up from the ground. "Let's get some sleep."

"I agree, I can walk Ryan." Ray says as Ryan nods and lets go of him, but stays next to him just in case. They depart to their houses and forget this day never happened.


	3. Walks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmares, walks, and talks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be out later or tomorrow.

They wanted to sleep, but something keeps them from sleeping. The nightmares scare them so much that it makes them wake up. Geoff sits up in his bed panting from the nightmare he just had. He checks the time on his alarm clock on the night stand, it was early in the morning and he figures he could just get up now. Though, he would be sleepy later in the day. Geoff sighs and gets up, it's been a week since the incident with Gavin happened and that's when the nightmares started. So, he figured it was the darkness overshadowing him that activated the sad memories. He shakes his head and gets ready for the day.

Geoff wasn't the only one having nightmares, Ray got them too. Every time they would do a Let's Play this week, they would be sleepy. So, what Jack told them to do was just sleep in during the Let's Play, but of course it took some convincing to make them completely rest for a day or two. But every time they tried to sleep, the nightmares would come back. It was overwhelming for them, but they managed and finally the nightmares were coming less and less. Ray sighs and rubs his eyes, his nightmares were worst than Geoff's. It was a terrible memory and it happened weeks before he joined the Hunters. He thought he could get away from it when he joined the Hunters, but it just made him think about it more. He previously thought leaving the Hunters would fix the problem, but he couldn't leave this kind of bunch. They were just like him in a way.

"Don't get up." Ray hears not that far away. "It's about six in the morning and you've been turning all night. Geoff is too." The familiar English accent says.

Ray looks over at a silhouette of Gavin, "Y'know, it's your fault this happened to us."

"How many times do I need to say sorry?" The brit says crossing his arms, pouting. Ray chuckles and sits up, "Hey, don't get up!" Gavin slightly gets up.

"Don't worry, Gav, I'm fine." He winces and fully sits up. "See perfectly fine."

"Ever since that incident with me and you and Geoff. You've been risking your life for us. You even went in the way of the sharp rocks that Jack threw at us, when he got mad. We almost couldn't save you, but Ryan has some useful powers. You're lucky, but Ray, you've got to stop."

"You don't understand, Gav! Geoff is still mad at me for leaving Michael!"

"So, you're trying to prove to him that you're willing to save anyone. You don't need to prove anything to anyone. Just being you is proof enough."

Ray leans on the wall carefully making sure that he doesn't lean on his scar. "Why are you even here? Why are you not sleeping in your house?"

Gavin uncrosses his arms and looks away from Ray. He stands and Ray's eyes follow as Gavin walks over to the door looking through the window, "Is it a crime to see if one of your best friends is okay?" Gavin answers rather harshly.

The hispanic notices the tone in his voice and takes it that he had offended him. "Sorry." Ray says quietly. "I was just wondering." He slowly stands and Gavin notices and comes over to help. "I know, I know, be careful." Ray says before Gavin opens his mouth. "Just help me outside, I've gotta take a breather." Gavin nods and helps him up and out of his house. Ray breathes in the cool air and there's a slight breeze.

"There might be monsters!" Gavin whispers forcefully from the door frame. Just then, hissing starts and Ray turns to see a creeper coming towards him. He stumbles back and lands onto his back and pain surges through his body. The scar still hurt, but he had to worry about the creeper trying to kill him. "Ray!" Gavin yells which wakes up the rest of the Hunters. Ray thinks quickly and forms water around the creeper. It explodes and water splashes everywhere. "Ray, are you okay?!" Gavin asks running over.

"Yea, just in pain." Ray says sarcastically.

The brit helps him up and Geoff comes out of his house exclaiming, "What happened?"

The two look at the older man and Ray shrugs weakly, "I see you're awake." Gavin says as Ryan comes out of his house and walks over.

"Gavin, go get some rest." The brit was about to protest, but Ryan gave him a look. He turns around and walks to his house. Michael and Jack walk over, "Ray, let's take a walk." The hispanic tilts his head slightly in confusion. "Come on." Ryan takes his arm and pulls him in the direction behind Ray's house.

Jack watches them leave and turns to Michael, while they walk over to Geoff, "Are you sure you can watch Gavin?" Michael asks.

Jack nods, "Don't take too long."

Michael smiles and turns to Geoff and motions his head in a direction, "We need to talk." They start heading to the direction of the Altar. Jack heads off to Gavin's house and looks at his bed to see him not there.

"Gavin?"

...

"So, Ray, what's up with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"How are you doing? Or rather taking all of this supernatural gemstones?"

"Can I just ask though, why are we walking while it's still night time? Monsters can pounce at us at any time." On cue, a spider comes out of nowhere, but Ryan takes out his sword and electrifies it. He stabs it and the spider gets electrified. "What the..."

Ryan sheathes his sword, "I have a theory that the gemstones we found is doing this."

Ray turns to him, "Doing this? Doing what?"

"Every time one of us says something like, 'Monsters might come.' Guess what?" An arrow whizzes past. "A monster appears out of nowhere." Ryan takes out his sword again and stabs the skeleton archer. The skeleton turns into a pile of bones and Ryan picks up the bow and the quiver of arrows and tosses them to Ray. Ray catches them and puts the quiver on and holds the bow firmly. "So, we have to be more prepared than ever because if we aren't than it's over for us."

"Why did you tell me first, why not the whole group?"

"Because I know that Gavin is changing."

"Changing, how?"

"Ray, he almost killed both you and Geoff! Would any one of us do that?" Ray doesn't reply. Ryan sighs, "Listen, there's something about Gavin's gemstone that's changing him. We need to find out how to reverse the process."

Ray starts to chuckle, "Ryan, that's the best story I've ever heard." He laughs and continues. "Why would you want to reverse this process? I mean, we're mastering these powers of ours. It's been working out for us."

"Working out? You and Geoff get into a fight, Gavin almost sucks the life out of you two, Jack goes AWOL and manages to hurt you, and now monsters appear every time we say something." He stabs a zombie behind him, "Like that. This is the real deal, Ray."

"Let me make it clear for you, once you have proof that Gavin is changing, then I'll believe you. But for right now, I suggest that you don't worry about this stuff. We have to head back, we have the meeting with Rooster Village today." Ryan sighs and they start heading back.

...

"Hey, Geoff, what exactly are you going to say at the meeting?" Michael questions. "Actually, what exactly is the meeting for?"

"An alliance with Rooster Village. That village has been trying to have us in their alliance for a while. They already have Slow Mo Ville on their side, but they're enemies with the Kingdom of York and Jerz. They want the villages and cities who live in the Kingdom of Tex to form an alliance. We are the only ones who aren't in their alliance, we have to join this big war of Kingdoms to end it. Caleb should be coming soon with news."

"Kingdoms York and Jerz are allies still?"

"Apparently, but even though it's your home Kingdom, you're a citizen of the Kingdom of Tex. Once we join with the Kingdom, we'll be able to defeat our enemy."

"What about Gavin's home, Slow Mo Ville? His friend, Dan, is fighting in the war."

"We have to fight in the war, Michael."

"Why? There's no reason to! We may have these powers, but that doesn't mean anything!"

Geoff places a freezing hand on Michael, "I know that the reason is to get involved in the war."

The ice around Geoff's hand melts and Michael shrugs it off, "We can't have a War of Kingdoms again, Geoff. You know that better than anyone! It's because of the war that we lost them!" Michael runs off.

The older man looks down at the grass, "He's right." He says quietly. "But we have to let it happen." Geoff heads back to Achievement City.


	4. Fight For Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Control over the unbearable pain.

Michael runs through the wilderness as the sun rises. He didn't know why he was running, but he couldn't let the Kingdom's fight. Especially what happened last time. "Geoff, why do you have to start a new war? More of our loved ones will die. Maybe even us." He shut his eyes tight. He couldn't let this happen, not again. He just got a life as a Hunter a few years ago and he'd grown to enjoying all their company. Even though, all of them, except for Ray, was his enemy. Ray's been his friend for who knows how long because their Kingdoms have been allies for a long time. The Kingdom of Tex is currently allied with the Kingdom of RWBY, which has four smaller villages, villes or cities, Red City, White Village, Black City, Yellow Ville. It's a small Kingdom, but they are Kingdom Tex's strongest ally.

"Michael, Michael! What are you doing here?!" Michael opens his eyes, turns and stumbles back when a horse gallops fast towards him with a man riding. The man stops the horse in time before the horse stomps onto Michael. "Come on, the meeting and a forest fire's about to start." The man outstretches a hand.

"Caleb, do you want another war with Ray's and I's home Kingdoms?"

Caleb jumps off his horse and offers his hand, "What do you mean?"

Michael takes it, "I mean, do you want anyone else to die?"

He pulls up Michael, "Of course not. Geoff is going to talk some sense into them, I'm sure of it. The war between our Kingdoms won't continue. You've known Geoff long enough to know that he would never want to start another war."

"I doubt it."

Caleb climbs onto the horse and lends a hand to Michael, "How could you say that? He's lost people to the war."

"Exactly he wants to get revenge on their enemy Kingdom. We're going to join in the war."

They start heading back to Achievement City as fast as they can, "Then we have to stop him." Caleb turns to Michael and smiles.

Michael is surprised at first then smiles. He gives a single nod, "Let's go!" The horse jumps over a log.

...

"Ray, we have to hurry!" Ryan looks back and sees Ray looking up at the sky with wide eyes. "Ray?" Ryan runs over and looks up at the sky. "No..."

The hispanic quickly grabs Ryan's hand and they run towards Achievement City. "Why does this happen to us?!" Once they past Ray's dirt house, a forest fire is erupting and spreading hastily throughout the forest(obviously). Ray lets go of Ryan and quickly goes to the fire near Michael's house. "He did it again!" Ray starts gathering water and pours it on the fire. "Gonna need a little help over here! Wait, where's Jack and Gavin?" Ryan runs over to Gavin's house and doesn't see Jack or Gavin.

"Jack! Gavin! Where are you?!" Ryan yells.

"AAAAGHHH!" Ryan hears then heads to Gavin's Trophy Room of Victory. He goes through the painting and sees just pure black.

"Jack? Gavin?" Ryan looks around in any attempt to find a sight of light.

Then a monstrous voice with an underneath voice spoke, "Where is he? Where did you take him? What did you do to...?"

No matter how much the voice shook him, Ryan still appears fearless. "...MY MICHAEL!!!"

A burst of Darkness exits the room and heads out of Gavin's house in any crevice or opening it could find. Ryan activates an electricity field around him, so the Darkness wouldn't touch him, "Gavin! Control yourself!" The electricity field around him starts to crack and he gets blown back by the force of the Darkness. The Darkness starts to form around him and soon all he could see is Darkness.

Ray hears something, then turns to his left and sees a wisp of Darkness go towards him. He tries to form a water dome around himself, but he gets knocked back. The hispanic struggles to get up and another wisp of Darkness torpedoes toward him. He crosses his arms to block it, but ice stops the Darkness from advancing. He looks behind him and sees Geoff, "Geoff! Thanks!" He gets up and goes to Geoff's side.

Geoff grabs Ray's shirt and pulls him, "Where's the rest?" He asks sternly.

"I-I don't know." Ray says shakily. "Ryan went to Gavin's house though."

"What did you do?!" Geoff growls and throws Ray down. "Get Jack and Ryan out of there! Now!"

"What about Gavin?!" Ray stands up.

"He's the one causing this. Now go!" The hispanic glares at Geoff, then runs towards Gavin's house, dodging or stopping any Darkness coming after him.

He hears galloping nearby, "Caleb, get down there!" Michael orders forcefully, while pointing to Ray.

"It's not that easy!" Caleb replies as his horse skillfully dodges or outruns any of the Darkness. "C'mon. C'mon, almost there." Caleb was confident, until he was brutally pushed off by one of the Darkness. "Damnit!" He flies a few feet and Michael lands next to him. He limply stands up and his horse quickly goes to his side for any support. "Ray!" The hispanic looks back, "Be careful." Ray nods and the Darkness encases half of Achievement City.

Caleb faints and his horse neighs, "Caleb!" Michael runs to his side and checks for any injuries. He looks back at the black dome surrounding half of Achievement City and at Geoff who was just standing there. Michael stands and pets the horse twice, in which it sits next to Caleb. The redhead approaches Geoff. "Look at what's happening, Geoff!" Michael points at the black dome. "If we join the war, this is what'll happen to everyone! Don't you understand, they will get hurt even more! Don't be stupid and think for once! What happened to that Geoff that we used to know a week ago?"

"Don't listen to any word they say, it's all an illusion." Geoff says then walks off.

"Where are you going?!"

"To end the war between Kingdoms. Forever." Geoff answers.

"You've changed." Michael mutters under his breath and goes over to the black dome. He places his hand on it, but it electrifies his hand. He retracts his hand quickly, "Electricity?" He touches it again and he dodges a rock. "Earth?" Michael takes a deep breath, then exhales through his mouth and the Darkness run away from the sudden heat. The redhead quickly runs in and looks around for any sign of the others. "Ray?! Jack?! Ryan?! Gavin?!" He hears mumbling and he runs to it. He sees Ray, but Ray had his back turned and he held his knees close. Ray was mumbling something that Michael could barely make out. "Ray?" Michael kneels and places his hand on Ray's shoulder. Ray's head slowly goes up and he turns slowly to Michael to face him. Ray stands and Michael looks down at Ray's hand. Ray was holding a knife and he was slowly walking to Michael, but Michael would take steps back.

"You killed her! You murdered them! All of them! And now you're going to pay." Ray raises the blade to Michael and it was inches from his face.

"What? What are you talking about?!"

Ray's face had turned into that of a crazy person. It was creepy and it even creeped out Michael. "Don't toy with me! I know you did it! You were there and you had blood all over you!... YOU KILLED HER!!!" Ray raises the blade higher and Michael braces himself.


	5. Guardians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray and Michael get some help, Geoff reports to the King, Joel has a talk with Geoff, the King is cooking up a plan, and someone is spying on the king.

Michael opens his eyes and a second Ray stood in front of him with his arm outstretched to the left. Ray slightly turns his head, "Howdy." The redhead looks at the water frozen in place, but it wasn’t ice. Ray forms the water around his hands and he looks around seeing no one. "It's not that easy to notice who's real and who's not, am I right? I mean, he is a ghost."

Michael notices what Ray means and replies, "Yea, I guess Ghost Ray is really similar to you, but what is he doing in here?"

"I don't know. You tell me." Ray answers thoughtfully and they start walking. “Why’d you come in here? I have to do this alone.”

“No, you don’t. Ray, you’re one of my best friends and I’m not losing you. Ever.” Michael says as he looks down.

Ray turns to him, and then looks ahead, “You’re really starting to sound like a broken record. I can tell if you’re lying or not. You’re doing this because you wanna save Gavin.”

“It’s hard to have any of my friends in danger.”

“He doesn’t seem to hurt you, only the rest of us. Even that time with Jack."

The hispanic stops and looks ahead. Michael looks back at him with a puzzled look, “Something the matter?” Michael turns to where Ray was looking and his eyes go wide. “L-Lindsay?” He slowly reaches out to her, but Ray stops him.

He shakes his head and they back away, “That’s not Lindsay.”

The redhead just stares at the not-Lindsay, but he wouldn’t believe him for a second, “How could you say it’s not her? She’s standing right in front of you!”

“Michael, don’t.” Ray says, and then branches form in front of him. “How the hell did these get here?”

Leaves float up to the air on the side not-Lindsay was, then the leaves head straight for her. And she was gone, just like that. Though, it seemed she had disappeared before the leaves hit her. Michael watched, but he didn’t want to see it. He didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t cry because he already knew that Lindsay was gone, but she wasn’t dead. She just wasn’t where she’s supposed to be.

Ray turns around, “Looks like you guys needed some help. You shouldn’t touch those things; even though your gemstones protect you. Touch anything that’s not real and you just might be done for.” Caleb explains quickly.

“Wait, you have powers too and you didn’t tell us?!” Michael asks a bit harshly.

“Yea, I’ve had these powers for a year. Why do you think there are always trees around when you guys do Let’s Plays? You guy’s should be ashamed for killing such important resources.”

“Exactly, that’s why we need to cut them down. We need the resources.” Ray replies.

“Whatever. Trees, or plants in general, have feelings too, y'know. They’re not dead; they have life surging through them."

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Ray asks.

"Because I'm not one of you. I'm not a Main, I'm a Guardian. I protect the Main, whichever one I'm assigned to."

"Who are you assigned to?" Michael asks curiously.

Caleb turns to him, "...You. The Fire Gemstone."

The redhead was confused for a second, "Isn't that the opposite of the Gemstone of Plants?" Ray asks for Michael.

"It's usually the opposite." Caleb answers.

"Wait, I thought that the opposite of Fire is Water." Michael questions.

"It is, but only if you're talking about normal elements. These Elements are specifically... special, I guess you could say." Caleb explains, but it makes no sense whatsoever to both of them. He sighs, "This'll be difficult to understand, but for right now, we gotta go before we turn into swiss cheese." They start running towards Gavin's house.

...

Iced footsteps are left behind as the icy man walks through the hallway ignoring the guard’s remarks about the now-ruined carpet. Geoff opens the door leading to the throne room and he takes a knee at least two meters from the stairs. The king speaks, "Ah, Geoff it's good to see you again. Please stand." He complies and the king continues. "Have you finally made your decision?"

"Yes, King Burnie, my city has been trying to reason with me that this decision will not benefit our lives, but I think differently. I know that this'll change the war--”

King Burnie stands, “We do not want to change it, we want to end it. We will destroy the Kingdoms of Jerz and York!”

“Burnie, the reason my city is going to join the war is because we don’t want to destroy the Kingdoms. We just want to reason with them, have them change their minds.” Geoff feels a flash of energy surge through him by a hand on his shoulder.

Geoff gets pulled back forcefully, just a bit, and one of his former friends starts talking respectively to King Burnie. “My lord, I assure you that I will make sure that these hooligans will not disrupt you’re plan of seeking vengeance and we will finally destroy our enemy Kingdoms.”

The king sits in his chair calmly and slouches a bit in it. He sits up and leans forward slowly, “I trust you, Sir Joel that you will watch over these pathetic, ambitious so-called humans.” King Burnie addresses as he already knows that Achievement City have been suffering with powers unheard-of.

They both bow and Joel pulls Geoff and they walk out quickly. “I need to talk with you.” Joel says harshly. Once they exit Rooster Village, Joel vigorously pushes Geoff to the ground and the man falls.

Geoff looks up at Joel, “What the hell?!”

“You can’t do this, Geoff! You can’t force them to join this war just because you want revenge on their Kingdoms! They’ve lost people to, you know?!”

“I have to do what is right, which is fighting in this war.”

“No, that’s not the reason you were given these powers.” Joel sighs and looks at the direction of Achievement City. “How long has it been since you’ve taken the gemstones from them?"

“Why?”

“How long?!” Joel yells, turning to Geoff again.

“More than a week.” Geoff answers.

Joel conceals the anger and he picks up Geoff by the shirt. “They’re going out of control because of you.” He lets him go and Joel starts for Achievement City, with Geoff following. “If you never have taken the gemstones, it would’ve been easier to indicate what is happening to them. For me, specifically you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Has Caleb told you guys anything or at least about Guardians?”

“No.”

Joel sighs and shakes his head, “What am I gonna do with him? Caleb was supposed to tell you that each of you have a Guardian. It would be someone who has powers just like the six of you, but have had these powers longer than you have. Six Main, six Guardian, so it’s even.”

“Wait. Going back to the talk with Burnie earlier, why do you want to destroy the Kingdoms?”

“I don’t, I have to convince Burnie that I am on his side.” They are close to Achievement City, when they heard screaming and they pick up the pace.

…

King Burnie watches his holopad carefully and switches screen to an anonymous person, “So, even my closest friend is betraying me. That’s okay, the more they use these powers the more they’ll be split apart. They’ll soon only trust me. I hope you won’t fail you’re next mission.

_“I know what to do.”_ He signs off and King Burnie puts away his holopad.

He stands and walks out, “They don’t even know a thing.” He exits the room.

A person is hiding behind a pillar of the room, “Interesting.” A gust of winds kicks up and he’s gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's the spy.


	6. Guardians II

“Well, what’d you hear?” One of the Guardians asks impatiently.

“King Burnie is working up a plan and we’re gonna have to work together on this.” The spy Guardian explains.

“Where’s Joel currently at, Kerry?” Another Guardian asks.

Kerry looks at the monitor, "Almost to Achievement City."

“Doesn’t he know that if he brings Geoff there, it’s all over for them?”

“Apparently not. Brandon, calm down they’re not even there yet.” The spy says.

Kerry interrupts their conversation politely, “Pardon me for breaking up your little talk, but we’ve got a problem. They’re almost there.”

Brandon glares at the spy for jinxing it, “We better get going then. Miles?”

“My pleasure.” Miles, the spy, walks over to a safe enough distance then waits for the others.

The two start walking over, but Kerry stops next to the last guardian. He crouches next to him, “You sure you don’t wanna come, Chris?”

He looks up at Kerry and shakes his head, “I’m sure, and besides I won’t be much help. I’ll just monitor things from here.”

Kerry nods once in response and smiles, “Your call and don’t worry we’ll get them back.” He stands and walks over to the other two. “Take it away Miles or rather take us away.” Miles chuckles and shakes his head, thinking that was terrible.

“Alright, grab on.” They grip Miles’ arms firmly and they were gone in a gust of wind. Chris gets up and sighs, dusting himself off gently.

“That’s not who I’m worried about.” Chris says. He walks over to the computer and looks up at the monitor when a masked face appeared, “They just left.”

“Then get the plan in motion. The puppet master is controlling puppets, but the best part of the show is when puppets are controlling puppets. Aren’t I right, Chris?” Chris looks down nervously, then back up, not saying a word. “You’re as speechless as ever. Just do your part and you’ll get your precious powers back, Lux.”

“Don’t call me that!” A burst of energy pushed back anything around him. He calms down, “I’m not Lux, I never was and I never will be.”

“It still seems like you have power, I guess I couldn’t fully take away your powers. But as long as the puppet master has puppets, the puppets will obey only him. Understood?” Chris’s eyes widen then he nods.

…

A gust of wind appeared in front of Geoff and Joel and Geoff stumbles back, but Joel stood his ground, keeping the dust out of his face. “Took you long enough.” Joel states as the three Guardians land safely.

Brandon walks over to Joel angrily, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? If you bring him in there, it’s over for all of them. Are you aware of that?”

“I’m very aware of that, Brandon, but are you aware that they are trapped in there?!” Joel’s voice rose while he spoke.

“We’ll go, you stay here. Keep Geoff as far away from here as possible.” Miles replies.

Joel nods, “Will do.” Joel grabs Geoff’s arm and pulls him away from Achievement City.

“Hey!” Geoff yells as he gets pulled away from Achievement City. “I’m not leaving them!” Joel stops and Geoff runs into him and stumbles back. “Hey, what’s up?” He asks rubbing his head as he looks up at him.

The older man turns around, “Since when do you care what happens to them?” He asks harshly. “Since when were you ever there for them?! Huh?”

Geoff looks away then back up at Joel, “That’s why I have to be there now.”

“You can’t stop Gavin from not using his powers, especially since you took away their gemstones. First, they’re going to get the gemstones from your house then go inside that dome and give them the things that are rightfully theirs. It’s your fault that they’re out of control and I know I said that already, but their blood is on your hands. It always has been ever since they joined your city. They trusted you, but you turn your back on them when they need you most. Being leader of this city is more than you can handle.”

“I can handle being a leader of my city. If I couldn’t handle it, I never would have made the city.” Geoff says defensively, getting up. “My friends are back there!” Geoff points to the direction of Achievement City.

“Friends?” Joel chuckles. “Yea, right. You wish they were your friends, but you always seem to push them away when they do something wrong. For example, Ray is risking his life every single time someone’s about to get hurt. He’ll take a shot, no problem, for anyone, just to get your trust back.” Geoff’s eyes widen at the sudden realization. “See? You’re even blind to your own ignorance. We’re going back to Rooster Village. The others will meet up with us there. Let’s go.” They start heading back.

…

Meanwhile, the other Guardians are retrieving the gemstones to give back to the Hunters. “Okay, I’ve got the gems!” Miles says running over, holding them in his clenched hand. He stops and makes a ball out of air around the gems to keep them safe.

“Well, how are we going to bring Geoff’s gem to him?” Kerry asks.

“Like this.” Miles maneuvers the air ball over his hand and snaps his fingers as he catches the Ice Gemstone. He blows it away as someone would do with a blow kiss and it turns into little bits then flies off. “Now let’s get inside.” Miles walks over to the dome and studies the dome. It’s purely black and there’s no way in, or any entrance they could see. Miles turns to Brandon, “Think you can open it?”

Brandon smirks, “I’ll give it a shot.” Miles backs away from the dome cautiously and lets Brandon do his thing. Brandon looks at his arm; it had some sort of mechanism that had small thorns in it. It was fully loaded and it would shoot out a thorn in the direction his arm pointed when his arm moved a certain way. He shoots a thorn at the dome with ease and the dome slowly opened. Kerry and Miles quickly enter and Brandon was right behind them just in case it closed.

Once they were all inside, the dome immediately closed behind Brandon and the scenery before them was terrible. They could see Gavin’s house in the distance, it was completely engulfed with Darkness and almost everything around them was covered in Darkness. “Can you tell if Caleb is here?” Kerry asks.

“No, something’s blocking me from him.” Brandon answers.

“Maybe it’s all this Darkness.”

Brandon shakes his head, “No, it’s something else.” He starts concentrating on Caleb’s position, but an unbreakable wall stood in the way. “We’ve got to get to them before it’s too late. Something’s wrong with Caleb.”

“Well, I’ll race ya.” Kerry suggests eagerly. “Whoever finds their Main first, wins.”

Miles laughs, “Haha, you’re on pal.”

“Let’s do this.” Brandon says smiling.

“Alright, but you’re gonna lose!” Miles takes the air ball and levitates it carefully in his bag.

“Go!” Kerry announces.

Miles takes off in a burst of wind and leaving the others in the dust. Kerry smirks, “Is that all you got?” He makes a dark cloud behind him and in a burst of lightning he bolts up to Miles.

“Cheaters.” Brandon states as he fixes the mechanisms on his arms. He reloads it by jerking his arm back a little and then he shoots behind him so he would be pushed forward by recoil. He reconfigured it to be like shotgun shells so that he could be quicker than just plain running. He caught up to them quicker than he expected.

…

Caleb outstretches his arm to make them stop running. “There’s trouble ahead.”

“But his house is right there. What could possibly go wrong?” Michael questions as a bunch of Darkness headed their way.

“You just had to open your big mouth, huh Michael?” Ray says.

“Oops sorry. We can take them.” Michael states, overconfidence washing over him.

Caleb smirks, “Not while I’m here.” Caleb makes plants around Michael and Ray. “Oh, and did I forget to mention that Guardians are vulnerable to Darkness.” He smiles. “The others better get here soon because they’re about to see the end of two Main.” He laughs.


	7. The Royals

Geoff and Joel were walking towards Rooster Village as a little dust flies towards him. He shoos it away but it comes back and forms in his hands showing that it was his gem. “How did?”

“Miles delivered, come on we still need to head to Rooster Village. You’ll be safer there.”

Geoff stops, “I’m not going back there.”

“We’re not going through this again Geoff. It’s already a hassle enough that everyone else is back at Achievement City. We can’t have this conversation right now.” Joel explains and they arrive at Rooster Village as Geoff clenches the Ice Gemstone. _Keep them safe._ Geoff thinks as they continue to walk.

…

“Looks like we’re too late.” Kerry says as they stop just a few ways away from the two Main and one Guardian.

Darkness heads for the Main and plants shoot up next to them. A wisp of wind passes Brandon and Kerry and the next thing they know, Miles takes the shot. Brandon’s eyes widen, “Miles!”

Dust hid the scene that left them asking questions. Coughing let them know that someone was alive. The dust finally clears and Miles stands in front of the Main with his hands up, panting. He glares up at Caleb, “Gust of wind, aide me in my time of need.” A great force of air spread everywhere and only Caleb blows away.

A tree grows behind Caleb and he stops flying back, “Is that all you got?”

“No, because he’s got us!” Kerry forms a cloud above Caleb and his plants.

Kerry turns to Brandon and he nods, “Poison adds a little sting to it.” Brandon shoots thorns at the clouds and it started raining poison on Caleb and the plants. Caleb smirks when the poison rained onto him. It just soaked him, “What?!”

“Haven’t you heard that poison comes from plants?” Caleb states.

Ray and Michael watch as they fight. Ray’s eyes widen, “Michael!”

“What?” Michael asks.

“Run!” Ray turns around swiftly, but gets blown back by Darkness.

“Ray!” Michael lets his guard down as he runs over to his friend.

Darkness quickly sneaks up on him, “Behind you!” Ray points and Michael turns around making a fire shield. He gets pushed back and Michael stands up hoping it wasn’t Ray.

Caleb had saved him, but why? “Caleb?” The Darkness constricts Caleb as Michael decides against helping him, not sure if he’s tricking him or not.

“This is the real deal Michael! Take the gemstones and recover Gavin before he destroys Achievement City, our home more importantly our freedom.” It crushes him harder. He struggles to talk, but manages to say, “Isn’t that the reason we all joined this specific city? Come to your senses and save your freedom! If that’s not the reason you joined, then why? Why did you decide to come here?”

“…Why I came here…?” Michael questioned his decision of ever leaving Jerz. Once he left Jerz and Ray left York, they just ventured to nowhere and trying their best to fit in places they knew that they wouldn’t fit in. Most of the time they would get recognized as the sons of the kings of Jerz and York and that was true, so they were kicked out of almost every refuge they could find. By the time they were kicked out the fifth time, Ray had stopped talking and just gave up on life. There was nothing better for them in royalty or as a peasant. They were just left for dead, but Michael never gave up on Ray and believed that both of them would live long enough to find hope. And a few close calls almost cost both their lives. Finally at about the hundredth time, they met this bunch that was extraordinarily special at the first time they met them.

The thought of the flashback made him shiver.

One of the royals lay on the floor while being beaten by a few thugs and a crowd encouraged them further and police never came. The other royal was held back by other thugs and watched and yelled at the thugs fighting back, but it was no use. “RAY!! I’ll murder you fuckers, I fucking swear!” He was brutally thrown to the floor and held down. “Fuckin’ let go of me, you piece of shit!” He was kicked in the stomach so hard he spat out blood.

“Such use of language, no wonder your daddy kicked you out of the house.” One of the thugs mocked. He laughed, “I hope you die a painful death.” They started beating Michael and left Ray alone, it’s not like he could move anyway and he gave up once this all started, since there was no real reason to live anymore. “I don’t get why you would come to your enemy’s land anyway. You’re stupider than I thought.” He laughed as they beat Michael.

He turned to Ray and saw that he was motionless, he didn’t move an inch, “…No…” He began to struggle getting up despite all the pain surging all throughout his body. The thugs backed away when Michael stood and he was steaming, “The only one dying tonight is you.” He said harshly and coldly. He was quick and the thugs didn’t know where he was until they were on the ground. Michael threw one of them to the ground so hard he bled and the ground under him cracked. He looked at his work of art, all of them bleeding and most unconscious, and walked over to Ray.

He knelt beside Ray, “I hope you die in hell!” “Never come back here, you monster!” He ignored all the remarks of the crowd and picked up his friend as he walked out of the city.

Michael carefully laid his friend down when he knew they were a safe enough distance. The Jerz ripped a part of his pants and wrapped it around the York’s arm and applied pressure on his side to stop the bleeding. He knew that he wouldn’t die right now; he couldn’t die right now it’s too early for that, for any one of them to die. Michael heard Ray’s breathing slow and he started to lose hope, there was no hope anymore if he just lost his only friend here and now.

“Hey.” Michael heard from behind him and he stood quickly ready to take his last stand. “Whoa! Hey, careful, that bruise of yours looks really bad.” The man raised his hands to send the message that he isn’t going to hurt them. “I’m just here to help.” The man wore a somewhat harmless appearance, though his arms looked like a kid drew all over them and he looked like he was drunk, but he was completely sober. “Your friend looks like he’s about to die, we could save him y’know.”

The Jerz’s face was apathetic, but inside he was about to breakdown from fear that he might lose his friend. “I don’t need your help, I can handle this.”

“Yea, you’re handling perfectly if you think that ‘handling it’ is having blood on your hands than yea. Trust me, we can save him.”

“Who are ‘we’?” Michael questioned.

“My friend and I, who is getting the medicine for your friend,” horses approached them. “Speak of the devil.” The horses stopped and a large man with a beard jumped off the horses. “What took you so long, Jack?”

“I had a little trouble getting it over here, Geoff.” Jack answered as he was a few steps behind Geoff, still not sure if the Jerz gained their trust.

Cleverly, Michael said, “Alright, you help me patch up Ray and I take your horses and cargo afterwards. How does that sound?”

“Sure, why not.” Michael was not expecting that kind of answer. “But is it smart to just flee from your problems or do you want to find an actual place called home.”

So when he and Ray were introduced to Achievement City it was a complete 180 to their lives and Michael never ever regretted leaving Jerz ever again. He saw his best friend change from being the quiet guy to the loudest guy, but that’ll change again if he doesn’t fix this situation. “To save both our lives from hate, ridicule, and discrimination… forever.”

“Finally, he remembers.” Caleb says as the Darkness around him shatters. “If it was that easy, then you should’ve done that a long time ago.” Caleb walks in front of Michael and Ray defensively, “You two go ahead, I’ll slow them down. Oh yea, and one more thing,” roots comes up from the ground in between Miles and Kerry. It grabs the sphere holding the gemstones and tosses it to Caleb who catches it. He looks at the Guardians and crushes the air dome around it, the gemstones safely put in his hand. He tosses them to Michael, “I trust that you’ll make the right decision.”

The Jerz catches the gems and puts away the gems that aren’t needed at the moment and hands Ray his waved one, in which he gladly takes. The surge of energy passes throughout their bodies as they gain control of their elements. Michael turns to Caleb, “I will.”

The pair goes to Gavin’s door, “I have no doubt that you will.” Caleb says as they open the door and just in time, roots defend the two and Darkness comes after the Guardians instead. “Good luck.” Caleb mutters as the Guardians are pummeled to the ground by the Darkness and the two Main enter Gavin’s house quickly.


	8. The Start

_"You were destined for greatness not destruction."_

_"Who you are supposed to be is now impossible and who you are going to be is now possible."_

_"Because you have made the decision of wielding the Gemstone of Darkness, the land you share with the current King will forever be cursed. This curse can only be stopped when the rightful owner of Darkness rises and possesses enough potential to turn the Darkness into Light. What does this curse do?"_

_..._

_"Whatever you want it to..."_

"Gavin?! Gavin?!" Someone repeated over and over as the Brit began to wake up. "Wake up!" Gavin slowly opened his eyes as he saw his friend, Michael, shaking him repeatedly that he would be able to throw up right now. "Finally, I was about to give up on you! Come on, you need to get ready. Geoff's meeting with the King today and we gotta be there for him!" Michael grabbed Gavin's wrist and pulled him up from his bed to wake him up and it definitely did the trick. "We're waiting downstairs. Come down when you're ready." Michael said and went to leave the room. He opened the door to find Brandon standing there. Michael gave Brandon a look and Brandon glared at him while he left.

Brandon stepped inside and closed the door, "You seem better."

"How long was I out?" Gavin walked over to his closet looking over the sets of clothes he has.

"Why does it matter?"

"How long?!" Gavin asked forcefully as Brandon took it as a sign that he now knows what's going on.

Brandon sighed, "A few weeks max and it'll be harder to keep the peace if you're awake again. I'm just saying, if you lose control again, we're in deep trouble. Speaking of control," Brandon took out something from his pack and tossed it to Gavin. "There, now you'll be able to control it or at least dim it down." Gavin caught the pure black gemstone in time and closed his closet, not interested in the clothes that were given to him.

"Why do we have to stay at Rooster Village? There's no reason staying here if we have our own home." Brandon threw creeper-patterned clothes at Gavin.

"If you so much have remembered, Achievement City was destroyed. If you were not being your old self and wake up to face the facts, you would have noticed that you're in a tight spot right now. Everyone in the village hates you guys and none of you are making it any better. You're lucky enough to have any of you survived that. If you were ordinary Humans, you'd be dead and forgotten." Brandon explained as he left the room. "Hurry up." He closed the door.

When he left Gavin with his own thoughts, it was too overwhelming to remember what happened weeks ago and it hurt his head just thinking about it. It was like his mind didn't want him to access his memory of that day nor any day that had anyone go berserk after they found the gems. Gavin picked up the green clothes and changed. Everything was creeper-patterned, well except for the belts which were light brown, and he loved it. Various belts were wrapped around him still making him able to do what he loves to do. He had a few holsters, around one of his legs, arms, and waist that were set in the right place for him to quickly grab a weapon, but of course no one would trust him enough to have a weapon. He laced up his green boots and threw on the green scarf he'd always wear. He promised himself to not ever go anywhere without it because it reminded much of somene he holds dear, only because said person gave that scarf to him. He finally put on his knee and elbow pads and looked in the mirror, it was perfect nothing was out of place and nothing felt uncomfortable.

He opened and closed the door to his given room and started for downstairs. He tightened one of his belts as he walked down the stairs. He put his green transparent goggles attached to a headset around his neck and looked for the other Hunters. Gavin searched the house and went outside, “Gavin, over here!” Geoff yelled from across the field. Gavin looked over as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness outside. He ran over as he practically fell onto his friends. “Geez, Gavin, be careful!”

“Sorry, lads.” Gavin got up and his friends dusted themselves off. "What have you guys been up to?" The others exchanged glances and none of them wanted to really answer that question.

"Let's just say boring stuff." Ray answered for everyone. "Apparently, we have to train to use our powers in a way where it can help people. I'm pretty sure we could do that now."

"Don't get cocky, Ray. You guys barely know anything about what you can do." Caleb walked over. "Speaking of training, it starts now." The others groaned. "Oh, don't be big babies and just get up!" They got up and followed Caleb. They arrived in an open area and the other Guardians were there. "You're first order of business, team up with your Guardian."

Geoff groaned, "Do we really have to do this?"

"Yes, because if you don't, you're riding my horse for an hour and you know how much she hates you guys."

"Not me, she's fine with me." Michael commented and then everyone, except for Ray, went next to their Guardian. "Okay, now what?"

"Nu uh, we didn't say it was going to be easy." Miles replied as he disappeared next to Jack and Jack cursed under his breath.

"So, then it's like hide-and-go-seek? I'm going to beat all of you." Michael said as he sprinted off. Everyone ran off in search for a hiding spot or their Guardian in the forest near the village.

Ray watched for his Guardian was not there and plus, Ray seemed more experienced with his powers than the rest. Brandon even commented that it was like Ray had his powers before anyone else did, even the Guardians. "When are you going to tell them?" Ray turned around to see Chris.

Chris stopped next to him and watched them play around in the woods. Ray smirked, "When were you going to me about my dad?"

"Never."

"Exactly, so I won't tell them. It's a win win, they get the truth and I too get the truth."

"Well that's not going to happen, they'll figure it out soon though. What they were really destined for."

"Do the other Guardians know?"

"What about?"

"About destiny."

"Yea, we knew once we got the powers. I'm pretty sure you did too."

"Yea, well, I'm not really happy with what I got."

"You should be, at least you've got powers."

"Don't beat yourself up, you'll get them back."

"I hope so."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criticism is much appreciated!


	9. Lies and Enemies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's just a lot of things that aren't fully answered and might possibly hurt your brain.

It went pretty quick. The first one to find their Guardian was Michael and he had found Caleb in a tree, literally in a tree. He somehow found him because he started burning down trees and Caleb came out easily yelling at Michael to stop and practically lectured Michael about how trees were important, which Michael regretted doing immediately. Ryan was the second one to find his Guardian, Kerry. He had been hiding in a cloud and Ryan figured as much, since Kerry can control the weather. Ryan just wanted to wait it out and finally he struck lightning at Kerry that made him scream loudly and jump that he fell down as Ryan caught him, laughing. Kerry folded his arms over his chest and pouted, telling him that he wouldn't be able to sit for weeks and Ryan just laughed it off. Geoff found Joel easily because Joel didn't really want to hide because he was too tired and explained that he was too old for this shit. Jack found Miles after having him practically face plant onto a rock that Jack had risen from the ground because Jack figured out that Miles was just running past him various times. Gavin was the last one to find his Guardian, Brandon, and it really wasn't easy because Brandon took this seriously. Every time Gavin would get close, Brandon would move to a different hiding place and Gavin finally spotted him when Brandon was about to run.

Thunder made them all jump and they looked up at the sky, then at Kerry who looked frightened, in fear of what the sky was doing. Ryan realized that Kerry wasn't causing it and neither was any one of them and none of them couldn't find an exact answer as to why the sky was turning into an array of dark clouds encircling right above them. They looked straight at it and everyone turned to Gavin when the sky turned to a very dark shade of black, almost pitch black. Gavin shrugged and they began to run towards Rooster Village. "Where's Chris?" Brandon asked.

"Still back at the base." Miles answered, catching up to him.

They all ran faster, "And how about Ray?" He turned to Geoff or any of the other Hunters and they all exchanged looks, "Fuck." Brandon breathed out. They arrived at Rooster Village and realized that the core of the encircling clouds were following them, slowly and steadily. They looked around and the village looked like it had been deserted years ago. Thunder was heard in the distance and there was no one in sight for miles. Brandon started heading for the King's palace, but Miles had grabbed his arm.

"Are you sure it's smart to get in there? After all, this isn't Gavin's doing. We need to head back to the base while we still can, Chris should know who is the cause of all of this." Miles said thoughtfully. Kerry laid a hand on his shoulder and took Ryan's hand. "If you wanna go, I suggest you hang on." Everyone grabbed someone else and they were gone with the wind. They arrived at some metallic place and the Hunters looked around, curiously. "Don't touch anything." Miles commanded sternly just as Gavin was about to touch something and the Hunters nodded.

The Guardians looked around quickly for Chris, but he was nowhere to be seen and they were starting to get worried. Then a door was opened and they saw Chris and Miles asked, "Where have you been?"

"Sightseeing." Chris said, sounding serious enough not to be joking. "Where were you?"

"Training, which you weren't at." Brandon replied.

"To be fair, you said that Ray and I didn't need to be there."

"No, I said that Ray didn't need to train, he still had to be there just in case, both of you were!"

"What's the big deal? We weren't there, so what? It's not like there's going to be a huge storm that will force us to cower in fear and stay inside." On cue, lightning struck and thunder could be heard easily.

Caleb shushed anyone who made a sound, "That sounded close, we gotta find Ray before that storm hits Rooster Village." He whispered as he turned to Chris. "When was the last time you saw Ray?"

"I don't know, he said something about getting his daily batch of roses."

Michael stepped in, "That's not possible, Ray and I did that this morning before Gavin even woke up."

Everyone looked at Chris suspiciously, "He could have lied, I have no idea where he would go."

"Maybe he went back to York." Kerry suggested, but immediately regretted opening his big mouth.

Brandon turned to Kerry, then back to Chris, "York? York is the enemy."

"And how do you know that?" Michael cut in.

Everyone turned to Michael, the Guardians eyeing him, except for Caleb. "Do you know something, Jones? If you do, spill it!"

Michael glared at the poison user, "If I did, I would be with Ray right now. Not standing here, bickering about something that could be easily figured out by doing," said the fire user, lacing his words with venom.

The poison user glared right back with just as much venom laced in his voice, "We are making a solution, instead of mindlessly running around, unaware of where we would go and search for Ray. I'm starting to think that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"I am NOTHING like my father!" He practically yelled it. "I am NOT a person who wants absolute power! NOT a fucking Jerzite! NOT a blood sucking asshole! I am NONE of those and NONE OF YOU are going to fucking tell me otherwise."

"And what about Ray? If he's not in Tex anymore, where else would he go? The only explanation would be running back home."

"Shut the FUCK up! You know nothing about him!"

"I know that we can't trust him. The enemy is the enemy, you're just lucky enough to have not ended up like Ray."

"Ended up? What the fuck is this? We don't even know where he is! For all we know, he could be just on a cliff watching the scenery or fucking training on his own. I don't fucking know! But the last thing I know he would do is go back. There's a reason we left and that's because I wanted Ray to have a better life, he didn't deserve to live with a father like that. So blood thirsty that it was almost impossible to win against them. Ray would not give up that easily!"

Gavin cut in before Brandon could yell back, "BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP! I don't care what Ray did or what he's going to do, just as long as he bloody comes back safe and sound." He pointed to Michael, "I don't care what you did or what you're going to do, just as long as you come back as well. Even if Ray betrayed us, I will always give him a chance to redeem himself." Gavin then pointed at the screen that showed the storm, "Do you see that? The longer we stand here bickering, the faster that storm will come and force us to be afraid. Right here, right now, it doesn't matter where Ray is as long as he's safe, what matters is stopping that storm before it all blows us all away."

Caleb smirked, looking amused, and turned to Kerry, nodding. Kerry nodded once in response and moved his hand in a circle a few times as the storm slowly swirled and became smaller and soon it was no more. The Main looked confused, "We didn't say that training was over, did we?" Caleb explained as they realized that it was all a test. "Just a test." Caleb confirmed.

"So, wait, Kingdoms York and Jerz aren't our enemies?" Geoff asked.

"They still are, but we believe that York is the main enemy here. With the fact that Ray is missing and the possibility that he left the Kingdom, the only other place he would go would be back home."

Now it was Ryan's turn to interrupt, "That's not entirely true, he would go for long walks. Sometimes he would never come back until days later. The only times he does that is when the rest of us are too caught up on other things that we have no time to notice small details like those."

"Ray missing is a small detail?" Michael questioned angrily.

"And doing what you do is a bigger detail than seeing that your friend has disappeared?" Michael quieted at that. Ryan smirked, "No one ever learns from their mistakes, that's why history is stupid. If humans were smart enough, we wouldn't be in this situation."

Miles and Kerry exchanged looks, "You know the back story?" Kerry asked as Ryan nodded.

"I was a scholar for Christ's sake, I know everything and anything." Geoff raised a brow at him. "Okay, I know mostly everything and anything." Geoff smiled in satisfaction.

"Who else knows?" Caleb asked, curiously, as Gavin slightly raised his hand. "That's it, wow, you guys really need to read."

"I read," Michael pretended to look hurt.

"Not enough, I presume."

"I have a question. Why the fuck are we still standing here, bickering? We should bloody go find Ray, right?" Gavin asked as some of them nodded in agreement.

He turned to leave and stopped at the door, "That won't be necessary." A voice said, the Brit slowly walked back in as an unfamiliar face to most walked in smiling wickedly. He earned a few glares from the Guardians and the Main just stood there, dumbfounded. "What? Never planned on seeing me again? Funny, because this is your dumb luck. I'll see as to what you lot have been up to and if it's what I expect, I'll be sure to end it."

...

Ray opened the red, golden trimmed doors and walked down the long hallway and there was still at least two more doors that he had to go through to reach the throne room. He opened the last door and a few guards pointed swords at him, "No one is allowed to see the King at this time. Leave now."

One of the guards urged to stab Ray when he took a step forward, but Ray simply waved a hand and the guards immediately lowered their weapons and stepped aside. He walked closer to the throne and bowed before the King, "Good afternoon." Ray said slyly as the King stood up.

"And to whom do I owe this honor to." The King asked, intrigued.

Ray stood, "No one, I came here on my own accord." The King walked down the steps slowly and carefully. "I did what you asked me to, now for your end of the deal."

"Oh Ray, it's not that easy. You do realize that this is just the beginning of it all." The King said as Ray nodded. He turned to the two guards that threatened Ray, "I see that you've fully mastered what I gave to you."

"To be fair, I never used it until now. I never needed it. The end of the deal." Ray reminded him sternly.

"Ray, you think you can just walk in here and claim being my son again. It doesn't work like that, you should know better." Ray looked away from the King's gaze. "Where is Chris?"

"He should be here shortly with news," Ray answered, "but that is besides the point. Why and whom did you send to execute them? I've got it handled and if you just as so much listened to me, all of this could've been avoided!"

The King chuckled, "You actually think that I'd trust you with an important job like that? They would know fully well what I planned on doing. What we planned on doing." Ray turned to him again, insisting he should go on. "Besides, you are my greatest asset. The strongest of this whole world, are you not?"

Ray slightly looked down, then back up, "No, Gavin Free is. He has the Gemstone of Darkness and you're the one who told me that Darkness is the strongest out of anything and everything."

The King smirked, "Yes it is, after all, look at what I did to Chris. Stripped his powers right from him and I did that right in front of you. You witnessed the power of Darkness, yet you never seemed too excited about the idea of it. Why is that? Hm, Ray?"

"If I wasn't intrigued with Darkness, then I wouldn't be doing what you told me to do in the first place. Not because I'm your son, but because Darkness reigns supreme in this world."

The King stared at Ray for a good long minute and Ray stared back, "Bow."

"What?"

"Bow down to me. If you do what I say, then bow." The King said firmly and sternly.

"I will not betray you!"

"You've lived with those hooligans long enough to where I know you'll protect them." The King turned around, taking out a holopad and pressing a few buttons here and there. "If you follow what I say, you will bow. Unless, of course, you don't care for the safety of others." The King smiled as he threw the holopad in front of Ray and a hologram appeared as the King started walking up the stairs to his throne.

Ray's eyes widened, "She's alive?" He slowly began to reach out, but the picture was rudely taken away. "Let her go!" Ray yelled, but the King laughed. He ran towards the King, but the King turned around swiftly with his arm outstretched and Ray stopped. He wore a wicked smile that Ray couldn't even recognize as his father anymore. "Let. Her. Go." Ray said.

"No, if you bow down to me, then you will get what you want." Ray couldn't move, if he did he would be ripped to shreds and the King held him there, his face twisted. "Everything could've been avoided, if you'd just listened to me. Bow." Ray was released and able to control his body again. He bowed and looked down and the King smiled. He looked up at the King as his eyes glistened a bright red and turned back to their natural light brown and he stood up, "Good, now get back to that wretched village before Chris gets here." Ray nodded and walked out.

"He's falling away."

"I know, it's alright. Although the rose has many thorns, only its gardener can dethorn it. He can do whatever he wants, but if I am in control, then there is nothing to worry about."

Ray clenched his hands as he left the throne room, "This is for you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CRITICISM IS MUCH APPRECIATED AND KIND WORDS ARE ALSO ENCOURAGED!!


	10. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation with the unnamed man becomes a fight for whom to believe in this war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess who the man is with the hidden hints that I have provided for you?

“What are you doing here?” Geoff asked sternly, after a long period of silence.

“How rude of you. I come back after a while and you don’t even say ‘hi’? Isn’t that just the best welcome ever?” The unnamed person said.

“You died!” Caleb replied.

“Yet I’m standing here now, aren’t I?” The person smiled. “And how could I have possibly died, if I’m the only one who knows where the Hunters are? I’m the only link, other than her, that he has.”

“Fuck all your lies! She’s dead!”

“Who told you that?” He seemed amused and he smirked when the Guardians stood defensively. “It seems that the only liar here is you, the Guardians.” He outstretched his arms towards them.

Gavin looked at each of the Guardians in front of him, all of them but one showed no sign of a slight panic. Though, Gavin caught Miles tense just a bit, he sighed internally. They were lying, but about what, everything? Ray’s disappearance? The reason of these gems? Or everything from the beginning of all their friendships? No, that couldn’t be. None of it could be true. The man standing in front of them was once their friend, but he wasn’t his normal self. Everyone here was his friend and he trusted all of them. How could anyone lie? No one should lie to their friends… unless, everyone was pretending. Acting, as if, he was just someone they could convince easily to be thrown into the fray. It was confusing, but now he knew he couldn’t trust anyone anymore.

The other Hunters took slow steps away from Gavin, “Uh, Brandon?” Jack said suddenly as the Guardians turned around and the unnamed man grinned, not moving from his place. The Guardians stepped back as well as they watched Gavin’s hair suddenly turning white and Darkness at the base of his feet, rising up and curling into tendrils, ready to strike at anyone Gavin wishes. It was dangerous to be this close, so their only option was to leave the place, but the man, of course, wouldn’t let them leave. At least, not all at once. He was skilled, but he couldn’t stop all of them.

They gave each other signals and they bolted out of the Guardian base, heading all different directions. The man stood there, not even caring if any of them left. Though, the only ones in the room was Gavin, the man, and Michael. “I’m not leaving him and you know it!” Michael said, holding a sword. He stood on one side of Gavin and the man stood on the other side.

He gave another smirk, “You’re so foolish, Michael. I remember when you used to always yell at Gavin. How things have changed and I’ve only been gone for a short while. Foolish and stubborn, that’s what you are.”

“Shut up! You’re not a Hunter anymore! Ever since you left on your adventure, you’ve been seeing us less and less. We were worried about you!”

His smirk turned into a frown at that, “I had t-”

“I’m not done yet! The only times you’ve came to visit or send a letter was once a month. It was all about how much you’ve experienced and you were so happy. We were happy for you too, though, we wanted to be there with you. Be there and explore the highs and lows of this world. Then you left, left forever! The last time we heard from you was at her village and days before we got your letter, her village had been destroyed by the Kingdom of York and they claimed that land as their own! We thought you were dead!”

At that point, the anger boiled up in Gavin was released and quickly the man ran over to Michael and forced him out of the building as the Darkness followed behind them. They got up and Michael realized some good in the man he once knew, he was about to say something, but the man stepped away from Michael. “Stay away! I can’t—I don’t—just stay away from me! Your changing m-me!” He stumbled over his words and then he ran into the forest, leaving Michael to fend himself from the Darkness, his best friend was forcing out. Michael knew that Gavin needed this, he needed to let it out, all the holes in his heart need to be covered. He couldn’t do it himself, but Gavin needed his time to recuperate his memories and remember why he became a Hunter.

Michael watched the way the man left and wondered if he would ever come back. Who did come back for Michael, when they realized he hadn’t come with them, was Caleb. “What are you doing here? He’s going to get you! Come on!” Caleb ran a few steps, but looked behind him and Michael wasn’t following. He ran back, “Michael, what don’t you get about him trying to get you?”

“He… saved me.”

“Who?”

“You know who.”

“Why would he? He’s the enemy.”

“It depends on how you define ‘enemy’.”

“Really?”

“Yea, really. How do you define ‘enemy’?”

“I guess anyone who tries to hurt my friends or me.”

“Then he’s not your enemy.”

“You’re just talking gibberish, let’s just go.” Caleb grabbed his arm to pull him, but Michael didn’t budge. He turned to him and let go when his hand heated up. “Michael!”

Michael was staring at the ground and slowly looked up at Caleb, “Isn’t fire a mysterious thing? It can run wild when it wants to and continues to grow massive and dangerous.” He smirked as everything around him heated up and soon enough, the forest was on fire. The heat was getting closer to Caleb and he picked up a branch and threw it at Michael. Not so excited with what happened afterwards, the branch quickly burned away to just ashes. He was not going to become a pile of ashes on the ground. He turned on his heel and ran, not planning to look back anytime soon, though he could still feel the heat catching up to him and lurking to him, trying to pull him in. When he finally turned around, Michael was nowhere in sight, but the heat still felt close and catching up, he still kept on running.

“Damnit, Michael.” Caleb said, under his breath. Caleb looked ahead, it was the village and he immediately stopped running and turned around. “Damnit, which way?” He was panicked, he couldn’t head toward the village nor could he head towards the others, he had a risk and which one would benefit them. He cursed quietly and started heading for the others.

Once in view of the group, he started barking orders, “Geoff, ice behind me now!” He passed Geoff, who started walking and right when Caleb passed him, he started making an ice wall from the ground up. “Jack, put as much rock between us and that ice, it’ll melt fast!” Jack nodded and did what he was told, shaping rocks between them and the ice and making multiple layers just to be safe. Caleb grew trees after Jack was finished and it curved to behind them, “We should be safe, for a little while longer. As long as Gavin _and_ Michael are madly using their powers, we aren’t going anywhere.”

“Why, why didn’t you stop them?” Geoff asked.

Caleb turned to him, “There was nothing I could have done.”

Geoff grabbed Caleb’s shirt and lifted him, “’There was nothing you could have done’ my ass! You’re powers! You could have stopped them! There’s always some choice you could have made.”

“Then why didn’t _you_ give _them_ a choice!” Caleb pointed to Jack and Ryan’s direction, then to where he assumed Gavin and Michael. “Or even Ray! You all may have known, but that doesn’t mean you should base all your choices on an assumption.” He sighed, “You used to be a leader and now you’re just a coward, fighting his own battles while the rest of his team fights the real battle. What happened?” Geoff clenched his hands, but he didn’t answer and Caleb continued. “I used to respect your judgments and now, it’s like your being selfish. You’re not the only one-“

“I GET IT!! Okay?! I get it, I’ve been an idiot and I’m being selfish and that I haven’t been making the right decisions! I. Get. It. You know why! All of you do!”

“Geoff, you can’t base this just because of what happened in the past.”

“Yes I can, and I’m sticking with it. Now, if you please stop bringing it up, and help us escape.”

Caleb looked to Brandon and Brandon just shrugged. Caleb sighed, “We’re not escaping.”

Just then, they could hear cracking and they immediately guessed that it was the ice. Their question was answered when water had come close to their feet and they heard rocks hit the ground. “GO GO!!” Joel yelled as he pushed a few people away from the wall they had made. They started running, Ryan turned behind them and a bunch of Darkness chased after them, dodging the trees Caleb had made with ease and catching up with them.

“Joel?!” Brandon warned as he turned from the scene behind them to Joel who was nearing the front of the group, next to Kerry.

However, Joel didn’t respond and the kept running. All the Guardians were confused, why wasn’t he giving them a surge of energy to move faster and outrun the Darkness? Miles couldn’t wait for him anymore, “Fuck this! Everyone hang on!” He grabbed the two nearest people, Brandon and Ryan, and they eventually all connected hands, then they were gone with the wind. The Darkness had passed where they had stood and when they knew that they were gone, they had went back to Gavin.

When the last piece of Darkness came back, Michael stood and watched as it came back and he caught Gavin, when he stumbled forward. He watched carefully as Gavin’s hair turns back to its natural color and his eyes back to their full of life green. “You okay?” Michael asked as Gavin looked up at him, he nodded. “Well, you seemed to be keeping it under control. Was it hard?”

Gavin shook his head and stood up straight, “I’ve been able to control it this whole time, but it’s not like I wanted to hurt any of you.”

“I get what you’re trying to say, Gav. Come on, we have to do this quick and find Ray and get the real answers.” Michael turned to leave, but Gavin grabbed his hand, not looking at Michael.

“He won’t answer them truthfully.”

Michael turned to him, “How do you know?”

“I can see it. He’s had this aura thing around him, it was all stronger and bigger than everyone else’s. I know it sounds stupid, but I can see the Darkness filled in his heart.”

Michael sighed, “This makes things a lot tougher, but that’s not gonna stop me, you know that.” They left the Guardians’ base and started heading the direction that the unnamed man had ventured.

…

Ray was walking back to the village when he heard leaves rustling, but not from the wind, from someone walking around. He sighed, “He sent you?”

The unnamed man showed himself and rubbed the back of his neck, “I didn’t hurt them.”

“I know you wouldn’t, just fight for as long as you can and everything will be all right in the end.” Ray stated as he walked over to him. “I’m positive that they already know, but I have to be sure and careful. Are you heading back?”

“Yup, if I don’t, let’s just say that it won’t be pretty.” Ray nodded in agreement. “Y’know I’m not doing this for you Ray, I’m doing this for her. She doesn’t deserve this.”

“Yea I know. Why do you think I’m trying to protect them too?”

“Because you fear that she will hate you if you don’t.”

“Plus, it’s the right thing to do.” Ray said as he placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, no one is going to die, not on my watch.”

He gave a small smile, “I hope you’re right, Ray. Just promise me that you’ll do whatever you can to keep your word.”

“I promise.” They smile at each other and head off in different directions: Ray heading to Rooster Village and the man heading to the Kingdom of York.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments of any kind are much appreciated!


	11. Truth II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prepare for some answers and some more questions, maybe. And possibly a little bit of a headache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM VERY VERY SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING BUT I LITERALLY HAD A LOT TO DO AND I HAD TO TAKE A little bit of a break from this.... I'm very sorry, but here's a new chapter! Thank you for all of those who still read and thank you for all those new readers!

Rustling was heard from his right and Ray turned to the sound, cautiously walking over and trying to peer through the bunch of leaves. "Ray?" He heard and Ray stopped in his tracks. "Ray, we came to set things straight."

"Where the fuck is he?" Glaring at them through the bushes, Ray took slow steps back as they came closer. Michael and Gavin finally appeared through the shrubbery and Ray looked impatient. If he was working for his father, then no one would suspect him.

"Who?" Gavin asked, clueless.

"My father's little hunter, who else?"

"You tell us. We were following him and it seemed that you were on the same path to where he was headed." Michael answered.

"I didn't see him." Ray replied, arms crossed.

"Bullshit." Michael said, not taking Ray's crap lying anymore. "Kdin's gone back to see your father."

"I'm gonna kill that bastard." He said, turning to leave.

"Not unless your father gets to him first. Ray, calm down. We don't want to cause any trouble right now." Michael said calmly.

"If you didn't 'want to cause any trouble', you would shut your mouth about everything you know." Ray replied.

"It was just an assumption." Gavin argued. "We weren't even sure."

Searching for any indication that they were lying, Ray glared at them, "Not sure? Geoff seemed to be positive that I was 'evil'." Ray used air quotes and added. "He didn't even give me a chance to explain myself."

Gavin took a small step forward, "Well, we're giving you a chance now. You don't have to lie to us anymore, Ray."

Ray scoffed, "You don't have to fucking make me feel like I belong because I don't -- I never did. Get your ass back to Rooster Village, I have to fix this." Ray turned around, but Gavin stopped him by grabbing his hand. Clenching his free hand, Ray sighed, "Let go, Gavin. I'm going to catch up with Kdin and confront him. I have to before he gets to York." Feeling something wet hit his hand, Ray turned his head to Gavin and Michael, his face softening immediately. He turned his whole body to them and said to just below a whisper, "Gavin." Gavin stared at the ground and stood still, visibly shaking soon after. Ray looked behind Gavin to Michael and he was even more heartbroken, "Michael." The bear-patterned man held a face of pure sadness and brokenness, clenching and unclenching his hands and stared at Ray.

The silence was deafening until Michael finally spoke up after a few minutes, "I know how your father is, Ray. I know what you've been through most of your life. I know how you react to certain situations, but..." Michael trailed off. He sounded so broken and lost, looking pleadingly at Ray to stop and just let them help. With a big intake of breath, Michael continued, "But you have to realize that we aren't royal anymore. That you don't have to fight this battle alone. That you have friends that will help you."

Looking up at Michael, disbelievingly, Ray forcefully pulled his arm away from Gavin and took a step forward, "Friends? The two of you, maybe, but not the Gents. Never the Gents. Geoff threatened to kick me out because I was a Yorkian, but he never seemed to bother you about being a Jerzite. Ryan and Jack always backed him up, no matter what I argued -- they always stood by his judgement."

"Ray, you're not looking at it from our perspective." Gavin tried to reason.

"Your perspective? All I see is that you concluded that I am the bad guy here. One day, you all decided that I was evil and that I planned to kill you all." Ray replied, glaring at him. "What did I do to make you all think that?"

The pair exchanged looks and turned back to Ray, "You had an alliance with your father without telling us, may have been a major part of it." Michael answered, seriously.

"Unbelievable. And where'd you here that? From Kdin?"

"Actually, yes, we did. Y'know how we told you that we didn't receive a letter from Kdin, that we received it from Miles? Well, we did receive a letter from Kdin, it said that you were conspiring with your father, obviously it's true."

"Where's your fucking proof that it's true? How do you know that Kdin wasn't lying?"

"Why else would he come back? He specifically told us in the letter that if you were gone and he came back for a short period of time then leave and you came back soon after, then you would be working for your father and that Kdin wouldn't be himself. I know you know what happened at the Guardian's base, you were watching the whole thing! We were fucking acting if you haven't guessed already."

Ray glared at them, "You think I'm that fucking stupid? That I don't have a damn clue on what's happening? That you are all one step ahead of me? I've always been ahead of you. One step or even ten. I've always made sure that I knew every single action that you were going to take, when you were going to take it, and why. I always know. That's why you aren't stopping me when I say that I am going to take this world, even if I have to go to the lengths of killing my dear friends that I, oh so loved, as said by my father."

"So, this is what you have become, a lying son of a bitch?" Michael asked, finally losing hope in finding the old Ray.

"Yes, I am and soon the world will know that I am the one who will shed blood upon the world they once knew and make sure that every soul will bow before me. There is no hope of mankind left to run from the Darkness that you, Gavin, have come accustomed to over the past month or so. How does it feel to be the controller of the wild chaos? Chaos that could cost your life and possibly the life of the others."

Gavin stared at the ground, hands and jaw clenched, "What happened to you?" Gavin asked, barely above a whisper.

There was a long pause, "I've lost hope." Ray finalized as he started to walk towards Rooster Village and the pair watched him, shocked. Gavin shook his head and ran after Ray to grab his arm, "Wait!" Ray forcefully pulled his arm away and glared daggers at the Hunter. "Don't fucking touch me! And don't even try to follow me. I will find the others and strip them of their powers and then I'll find you," Ray pointed at Michael "and leave you defenseless. You're last because you've been a friend more than they ever were. And dear Gavin," Ray smiled slyly "I do hope that you enjoy the sight of you splitting your only family to shreds because I will." He said the last two words in a sing song voice. "I crave the torture that they will face in due time" Smirking, Ray disappeared in a blink of an eye. Something dropped near them and Michael looked over and picked it up, examining it and then holding it firmly.

Turning to Gavin, Michael said determinedly, "We have to go to RWBY!" Gavin was confused at first, but then it turned into a smile and he nodded, agreeing. Michael whistled suddenly and then after a few moments later a horse jumped over them and landed a few feet away from them. "It'll be faster." Michael declared as he got on offered Gavin a hand and the brit took it gladly, heading to RWBY quickly.

~~~

The Guardians and half of the Achievement Hunters landed and thought they were finally safe until someone punched Miles hard to the ground and knocking him unconscious. "Miles!" Kerry ran over and turned to the culprit, gasping. "Monty, what are you doing?!"

"Teaching a lesson. Now move out of the way, Kerry." Monty ordered and after a short while Kerry willingly complied, leaving Miles completely defenseless and vulnerable. "So, what's rule number one about the gems, Kerry?"

The others stood still as Monty walked slowly towards Miles, cracking his knuckles neck loudly. "D-don't u-use them in the l-land of RWBY."

Monty flashed Kerry a smile, "That's right and what happens when someone defies my rules, young Kerry."

Kerry gulped, "To, uh, t-to never do it again, u-unless you want to s-suffer."

Monty nodded, "And?"

"You teach us a lesson without speech, but with your fists."

Monty smiled, satisfied, "Good, at least, you follow my orders. Now for the little spy who doesn't shut his mouth and doesn't seem to know what rules are to succumb to my wrath."

"I didn't come here for a little show of your own, but of a show of my own. Thoroughly delight in my show as I delve into the facts of the world of today and be prepared to bow down to the one true King of the whole world." Someone delivered as an entrance and jumped down from the top of the throne of Monty Oum.

When he saw who it was, Geoff clenched his hands, "I'll kill you!"

"Now now, a little rude of you to not say hello."

"Don't give me that!" Geoff snapped back.

"My my Ramsey, I do apologize for my shit performance and shall I say, stunning finish to a job well done. Now if you please excuse me, I have the next stage to my job." Ray smirked. "Which is getting rid of the likes of you worthless beings on the face of the Earth. I would say that I would miss you, but then I'd be lying. Heads up, you've got a lot of problems to fix and no time to fix them. So, say goodbye!" The ground started shaking as Ray slowly raised both of his arms up slowly and a faint shadow showed on the stained glass behind the throne, then a sudden rush of water poured in, devouring everyone and completely leaving Ray dry, the drops running away from fear of him. "This is the plate I serve to you..." Ray trailed off as he watched them struggling to reach the surface of the water. The water didn't leave the room and it began to fill the room to the point of no oxygen source, fierce waves keeping them from resurfacing and breathing in air that they desperately needed to survive.

"...Death..." Ray said silently as he referenced to his unfinished sentence. The water stilled when it reached the top and they struggled to breath, some even losing consciousness and reaching the bottom of the throne room. Once all of them were unconscious, the water retreated and the bodies fell. Apathetic, Ray walked over to the bodies, his footsteps loud in the echoey throne room. He leaned over one of the bodies, "What a shame. I thought they'd give up long before. I guess they really are the rightful Achievement Hunters. I guess I give you props for that one, you really gave me a fright there."

Ray stood up straight, another Ray in his peripheral vision. "I do wish that you realize that there is nothing you can do. I have complete control." Laughing proudly, Ray passed Ghost Ray, staring disbelievingly at the bodies. "I was entertained by this game, my dear Ray, and I do hope..." Ghost Ray studied the bodies, scattered all over the throne room, unmoving.

"...We get to play again." Ray began to take the other's gemstones even the Guardians' gemstones and left the land of RWBY, his hand shaking.

~~~

Kdin entered the throne room, walking cautiously towards the throne. Bowing in front of the King of York, Kdin clenched his hands, "Failing is not what I want and you disappoint me more and my trust for you decreases. I'm beginning to doubt who's side you're on, Kdin."

"Yours." Kdin answered without hesitation, standing.

"We'll see about that. I heard that you broke it."

"It was a mistake, Your Highness."

"A mistake? There is no room for failure, you should know that by now."

"I apologize, I will not hesitate next time."

"Is that so? Remember, I am prepared to do the unexpected, Kdin Jenzen."

The King went to raise his hand, "Wait!" Kdin yelled, his hands in front of him and then lowered them. "I'll do as you say, Your Majesty. No matter what happens, I'll comply with your commands without reluctance. I'll do whatever I can to assist Ray with crushing the Achievement Hunters and their Guardians without hesitance. I devote my life to you, my King." Kdin declared with a bow in the end.

Searching Kdin for any signs of lies, the King found none and sat back in his throne, "I'll trust you, this one last time. But if you fail, I will destroy them. I promise you that."

Kdin nodded once, "Yes, my King."

"Now, I have a mission for you. If you have the chance, then I want you to withdraw Gavin Free from the Darkness that he has learned to control. And as an additional, I desire for you to kill Michael Jones." Kdin tensed, but immediately relaxed, hoping the King didn't notice. "Do not disappoint me, Jenzen." Kdin nodded and stood, walking out. His eyes flashing red, then back to normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE COMMENT!!!!!!!! I NEED CRITICISM AND INSPIRATION AND ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS FIC IT REALLY HELPS ME TO WRITE, I AM NOT EVEN JOKING!! Okay, I'll calm down now.


	12. Origin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guys get in a fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this in less than two days...

Riding a horse, a young man galloped through the forest, taking in the beauty of the famous forest, the Red vs Blue Forest. The colors of the trees and bushes were a mix of red and blue, so beautifully combined to make various patterns. There was no other color and it almost seemed as if the two colors were fighting for more shrubbery, to take the forest as their own, hints the name. Though, hidden deep within the surplus of thick trees and thorny, fruitful bushes lies a fountain filled with magical water. What the liquid does, no one has heard because they either died at the hand of the cursed forest or lost within the maze.  
  
The man looked ahead of him to see a clearing to the next city, "Thomas!" He heard behind him and stopped his horse to turn around. "Thomas, wait up!" Another man raced towards Thomas with a horse and quickly caught up.  
  
"That took you long enough. What were you doing?" Thomas asked and examined the man further, "And who's your friend?" He asked, pointing at the wolf in the man's hand. The wolf appeared to be unconscious and barely clinging to life, not to mention the cuts and wounds on the wolf.  
  
Thomas looked back at the man and saw a necklace resting there, he smiled mostly to himself. The necklace held a pendant shaped like a star and Thomas knew fully well that the man loved stars and always stared up at the night sky when he got the chance. Thomas didn't know why he loved stars so much, but he managed to get a necklace to give as a gift and the man adored it, he wore it everyday.  
  
The man looked down at the wolf and back up at Thomas, "Well, he was hurt and I wanted to patch him up."  
  
"Wait, you didn't give him a name did you?"  
  
The man let go of the reins to scratch the back of his neck with a drawled out, "Maybe." Thomas shook his head and pulled the reins to turn and head to the clearing again as the other man followed. "Look, I'm just going to patch him up and release him. Plus, I didn't really give him a name, I couldn't really think of one. What sounds nice for a wolf?"  
  
"Jordan, you can't keep him." Thomas deadpanned.  
  
"I'm not! I'm just going to help him and ask Father if I can keep him." Jordan muttered the last part. "Anyway! Remember the letter we received yesterday?" Thomas nodded. "What do you think? You think we can join? That we're able? That we're ready?" There was a beat of silence as Thomas thought about it. They received a letter in the morning from one of Thomas' old friends offering them to go above and beyond.  
  
Thomas sighed and they stopped, "I don't know. We'll just have to wait it out, I guess. But whatever you choose, I'll come along. You know that right?" He put a hand on Jordan's shoulder.  
  
"Jeez, you just had to make it seem sappy. And yea, I know full well. C'mon, we have to get back its getting dark." Jordan informed. Thomas nodded and they started for the city.  
  
...  
  
Jordan suddenly slammed the table, startling Thomas, " Caleb!"  
  
"What?" Thomas asked, confused.  
  
"We can name him Caleb! It's a great name!" Jordan referred to the wolf.  
  
"I already told you we can't keep him." Thomas reminded him.  
  
"Mother would be ecstatic! You know how she always wanted a pet and if Mother loves something, then Father is bound to get it, he just didn't have enough gold. It's perfect!" Jordan ignored Thomas and went to check up on the wolf and Thomas quickly followed.  
  
"What's so special about the name Caleb?" Thomas asked as they walked.  
  
Jordan froze for a moment to think, "Well, I was reading-" Jordan was interrupted by Thomas' gasp, "Shut up. I was reading and I learned that in Hebrew, Caleb means dog. Which is perfect, right?" Thomas raised an eyebrow and they continued walking. "It's a great name. You should change your name to something that'll fit you, like Caleb."  
  
"Did you just call me a dog?" Jordan tried to suppress a laugh.  
  
"I searched up your name! And it means twin in Aramaic. I don't know why, you don't even have a twin."  
  
Thomas rolled his eyes, "What does your name mean?"  
  
"Mine? Oh, uh, it means down-flowing. Maybe it means that I'll go down a river and drown or something." Thomas looked at him questioningly. "I'm just kidding! We should go now, we should make it home before the sun goes down." Jordan insisted as they noticed the wolf missing. "I guess Caleb didn't want to have owners."  
  
"When do animals ever want owners?" Thomas asked rhetorically as they walked out of the inn with their belongings and placed them on the horses. The pair settled themselves on their respective horses and started to trot along. After all, their home was only five miles away and they still had about an hour of sunlight left before the monsters came out.  
  
Smoke caught Thomas' eye and he turned towards a bright city a few miles away. Bright because it was on fire. Well, half of it was and the fire was spreading fast. "Should we go?" Jordan asked, curiously watching the burning city.  
  
"No, the neighboring cities will help." They stared at the city a while longer. "Let's go." They continued on their way home.  
  
...  
  
Passing the only trail to the burning city, someone with soot all over them ran up to the pair. "Please help us! Our village is on fire! I'm sure that you saw the flames. Please! Help us! No one else will!" Without hesitation and a word, Jordan forcefully turned his horse and kicked it, bolting pass Thomas and the villager and heading for the city.  
  
"Jordan wait!" Thomas outstretched his hand to grab him, but he was too far already. "Damnit! Stay here!" He ordered the man who nodded frantically. Thomas raced off after Jordan yelling for him too come back and that it's too dangerous, but he was ignored.  
  
Jordan abruptly stopped his horse and jumped off. "Please help!" A woman pleaded, tugging at Jordan's shirt. "My brother is in there!" She pointed at a cabin and let go when he ran towards the building. Thomas stopped his horse and jumped off, running to the building that Jordan ran in. He saw a man exit quickly, claiming that someone saved him. He continued to run, "Jordan!" The last thing he said before the building exploded and blew him back.  
  
...  
  
"Thomas! Hey, Thomas! Get up!" Thomas' eyes fluttered open and everything came to him in an instant. Standing up, Thomas looked around, taking in his surroundings. Some villagers of his village were there, including his father and the woman and her brother were there. The fiery prison that held his brother was now a pile of ash and burnt wood. Thomas felt like crying, but anger boiled within him, overcoming the sadness. He marched over to the building, despite his father's protests.  
  
They watched as Thomas pushed away wood and debris, determined to find Jordan. "Thomas, he's gone." His father stated behind him, matter of factly. "There's nothing to recover." That just made him dig faster. After pushing away a piece of wood, Thomas froze, staring at a golden necklace with a star attached to it. Thomas slowly picked it up and examined it. Just like how it was, untouched and unharmed even from the embers of the fire. He put it around his neck, the necklace now the only thing that he could keep from his dead brother. Other than the horse, he could keep him too.  
  
Turning around and heading for the two horses, Thomas ignored all the worried faces. "Thomas, what are you going to accomplish?"  
  
Stopping and slightly turning his head, Thomas claimed, "Thomas is dead." Whispering started. "I am Caleb the lone wolf and I'm joining Achievement City." He finalized and approached Jordan's horse carefully. The horse never really liked anyone, only Jordan for some reason. But when Caleb approached the horse, it didn't try to attack him it acted as if he didn't care that he wasn't Jordan. Caleb got on the horse and went on his way, straight for Achievement City and leaving his old life behind.  
  
Because the Denecour brothers died in Rooster Village and Caleb was a lone wolf, searching for a home.  
  
~~~  
  
Caleb sat up in his bed, immediately feeling his neck for the necklace and panicked when he felt nothing but his own skin. "Damnit!" He picked up the nearest item and threw it against the wall, shattering it in pieces. "Why did I have to be the one with spawning?!" He yelled. He was angry, mostly at himself. He hated how his brother died without having the chance to spawn again.

  
The first child receives the gift of spawning and skips the next baby. Odd number babies are the only ones who receive spawn. Though if someone dies five times, then they lose all their memories and become reborn. If they're lucky, they'll be an odd number baby and be reborn in the same generation they died in.

"Caleb, you okay?" Caleb turned to the door and saw Joel.

"Yea, I'm fine." Caleb quickly got up to get ready. "Just remembered something I shouldn't have."

"He's dead Caleb, you need to realize that." Joel deadpanned.

Caleb froze, clenching his jaw and hands, "I knew that already." He walked out of the room.

"Hey, where you going?" Joel called after him.

"York, I'm getting my necklace back." Caleb exited the cabin.

"You'll die trying!"

"Then it'll be the end for Caleb the lone wolf." Caleb remarked, getting on his horse. "Maybe I could die peacefully."

"Alright, it's your death wish." Joel went back inside.

"Y'know, you and Thomas are very different." Brandon said, watching Caleb readying to leave.

"That was my intention."

"You're reckless and hasty, Thomas was cautious and patient. Same body, but two different lives. How did you do it?"

Caleb smirked, "I didn't do anything. The Denecours died here and Caleb was born here."

"You sure you want to risk it." Brandon asked. It was more a statement than a question.

Caleb nodded, "Yea, I do wanna risk it. That necklace doesn't belong to Ray."

"Your brother's pendant transformed into your gemstone, right?" It was a while, but Caleb finally nodded. "Well good luck. I hope you find what you're looking for, Lone Wolf." Caleb smiled thankfully at Brandon and left.

~~~

Geoff sat up abruptly, gasping for air desperately. He frantically looked around and noticed that he was back in Rooster Village. "Damnit!"

"Geoff! Get out here!" Someone yelled and Geoff quickly got up, putting in clean clothes and walking out the door.

"What is it?" Geoff asked impatiently as he walked over to where Jack and Ryan were.

The pair exchanged glances, "We have to get to York."

Geoff stared at them dumbfounded, "No, we don't. We could just forget about Ray. He can go suck a dick and right now, we could just go find Michael and Gavin."

"There's no need to." The aforementioned pair emerged from the entryway of the cabin and they appeared scared.

"We need to find Ray." Gavin stated.

Geoff examined them, "Why?"

Michael stepped in, "Because he is the only key to stopping his father's reign of destruction. Plus, I owe him a favor."

"Okay, we find Ray and then we kill him. Problem solved." Geoff remarked, they started to exit and head out.

"Killing him could be our best bet, but we need to force Ray to hand your gemstones back. You guys could go crazy any minute. So for now, don't use your element unless you absolutely need to."

"If I may," Joel asked behind them and they turned to him, wordlessly telling him to continue. "Caleb is going back to York to receive the gemstones. Of course, at a cost. Possibly his own life or a life of another. So, that is covered." They were at the horse stables and getting them ready.

"He'll die or be put in the hands of the King of York." Michael informed. "And if that happens he'll end up like Kdin."

"Did I hear my name?" Kdin appeared behind them and they turned, cautiously ready to use their powers. "Wonderful to see such desperate faces, itching to kill one of their own friends. How do you do?"

"Cut the shit! What are you doing here?" Michael asked.

"Merely experimenting, my dear Michael, and I have orders from the King that I must follow." Kdin enlightened. "Now, either hand your gemstone peacefully or I'll take by force."

Michael clenched two gemstones tight, "Over my cold, dead body."

"I see." Kdin said, unimpressed. Taking a step forward, Kdin was stopped by an icicle almost cutting him. Turning to the culprit, Kdin reassured and pointed at Geoff, "Don't worry, you'll die first."

Geoff tried to attack again, but was stopped by Michael, "Geoff, I told you not to fucking use your element!"

"If you haven't noticed, this is a fucking emergency!" Geoff's voice slowly raised.

"No, it's not."

"You're not afraid." Kdin declared. "Why?"

"Because I can handle you." Michael said, confident. "If you think that you could just fucking walk in here and take something that's not yours, then you're sorely mistaken. And remember that favor I talked about earlier?" Michael held out Ray's gemstone, the Water gemstone, and threw it up in the air. Everyone watched as Ray came out of nowhere, grabbing the gemstone and landing next to Michael. Gavin stopped Geoff from trying to murder Ray in cold blood and Ray ignored Geoff.

"One chance to break the spell, think you could do it?" Ray asked Michael.

Michael nodded, "Yea, I'll do it." Michael turned to Kdin, "Surprised?"

"No, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve." Kdin showed them a gemstone, the Light gemstone.

Ray stared at it disbelievingly, "He gave it to you? How can you control it if you're not even destined to become a Guardian?"

Kdin smirked, "I have a mission and I'm willing to go through with it."

Eyes widening, Ray realized something, "I-it's corrupted! Don't let the element touch you!" He yelled as Kdin used his element. Beams of light and darkness mixed together were shot at the Main and Guardians. They dodged all of the beams easily and they noticed quickly that Michael was being targeted, so they did their best protecting him while trying to dodge the beams at the same time. Smirking, Kdin shot a beam at Geoff and Ray, just in time, jumped in front of it.

~~~

"How did he do it?" Chris asked the King of York.

"Magic. One body with two minds turned into two bodies each with their own mind. Illegal magic. If he's lucky, he'll live for a few years. Ray is getting smarter and continuing to avoid me, so Ghost Ray is now my servant and Ray will be dead." The King declared.

Chris turned to the screen, "Does Ghost Ray have control of the Water Element?" The King nodded.

"Ray can only use so much of the element because Ray stripped himself from his real body, so Ray is not a threat. If he uses too much of the element he'll either die or tire himself to the point of being useless. But don't worry, Kdin will take care of them.

He's a bomb ready to explode."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any comment you want to leave is much appreciated.


	13. Origin II: The Prince of Jerz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray and Michael get into some trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very sorry I didn't credit this last chapter because I completely forgot. Thank you to the two people who suggested I should add some background stuff: colli and Isaac_Kran. It took me a while to figure out how I would do it and I just figured I should fuse their backgrounds with the story instead of making a whole new story. Anyway, enjoy!

Two young princes ran around in the ball room and played as one used powers and the other ran around trying to dodge the Magic. Hitting the Prince of Jerz in the face, the prince fell over and the Prince of York landed on the ground. "Hey Ray! That's not fair!" Michael rubbed his eyes to clear the Magic from his eyes. "You can't use your powers, that's cheating!" Michael whined and pouted as Ray skipped over, crouching next to Michael sitting on the ground.

Studying Michael's face for any injuries, Ray poked the other's cheek, "But you always complain when I don't use them. I could teach you, if you want. Father, always wants me to practice." A switch flipped in his head and Michael nodded happily and Ray grabbed his hand to help him up and the two princes ran out onto the courtyard to learn the art of the unordinary Magic Ray once practiced.

Even after at least five years of teaching the Prince of Jerz the Magic, the Prince of York failed to believe that he would ever be able to teach him successfully. "Why doesn't it fucking work?" Michael growled. "You've fucking taught me again and again, but I can't do it."

"Maybe there's something wrong with your stance." Ray suggested.

Michael furiously shook his head, "No, there's nothing fucking wrong with my stance. I'm doing everything right. I probably don't fucking have magic in me. I wouldn't be fucking surprised, your whole family uses Magic, but my family uses swords, shields, weapons to win."

"Don't worry, man. You'll learn how to do this eventually, you can't just give up now -- after all the work we've both put into this." Ray encouraged and Michael actually considered it. It's not that the Magic was hard to do, it was his body not complying with the Magic.

"Okay, fine. Show it to me again." Michael agreed and Ray nodded, readying to demonstrate to Michael. Taking a deep breath, Ray took a fighting stance and studied the wildlife around him. Spotting a rabbit jumping out of a bush, Ray shot his hand out towards the rabbit and a burst of black mist ran for the rabbit, encasing the animal slowly until it turned into black mist as well and it ran back to Ray's outstretched hand. Something about basically killing and disintegrating the rabbit made Michael's stomach churn and he suddenly didn't want to learn Magic.

The York Prince pulled the cloud close to him and showed it to Michael, "See? Simple. This was the first thing Father taught me. How come you can't learn it too?"

Michael glanced at the cloud hovering above Ray's hand and took a deep breath, "Uh, I just remembered that my dad needs me to attend a meeting. So, I'll see you at dinner?" Ray nodded without questioning Michael's sudden desire to leave and watched as the Jerz Prince jogged off. Behind him, Michael could hear the growls of the rabbit as Ray whispered to it like it would listen to every single word. He didn't really need to attend a meeting and Ray probably already figured that out since he said 'my dad' instead of his dad's name. Michael always said his father's name because he had no respect for his father and his actions, he never did and it made him sick whenever he heard other people yell with joy or fear, 'It's the Prince of Jerz!' People disliked him because he was the prince and Michael knew he couldn't change that, not unless he left, which he and Ray were totally not planning to do. At least not any time soon.

But compared to Ray's father, Michael's father was a better man. Compared to Ray's father. The King of York was terrifying beyond belief and all the Kingdoms cowered in fear of the King. He was bloodthirsty and cared for no one's lives, not even his most loyalist subjects. So, Michael felt bad that Ray had been the one born into that family. He would switch families with Ray any day just to save Ray from the pain.

Turning a corner, Michael bumped into someone and landed on his ass. He rubbed his head, "Hey, watch where you're--" He looked up and froze as he saw the King of York. Getting up immediately, Michael straightened his clothes, "I'm sorry, Your Highness. I didn't know it was you--" The King raised his hand to silence him and Michael complied, warily watching the King.

"Prince Michael, may we take a walk?" The King asked and Michael took a moment to consider this offer before slowly nodding his head, unsure of the King's reasons behind it. The King gestured for him to start walking and he hesitated to do so, but eventually started walking with the King walking up next to him.

They walked in silence -- a thick tension rising as Michael waited for the King's explanation to suddenly want to talk to him -- and the King spoke up after a few minutes, "So, Prince Michael, you are Prince Ray's best friend, correct?" Michael gave a confused glance at the King before deciding against questioning him. Of course he's best friends with Ray! He has been for the past fifteen years! How has the King not noticed that? Before he could answer, the King asked another question, "Do you trust him with your life?" Michael stopped walking and the King stopped as well, watching Michael. Why is he asking that kind of question? Of course he trusts Ray. They've been in tough situations before and they watched each other's backs. Why all of a sudden was the King asking Michael if he trusted Ray?

"Yes," Michael answered, then added, "to both questions. May I ask why you ask such... interesting questions?"

Again, there was silence and Michael thought that he had made a mistake and was about to say something, but was interrupted. "I ask these questions because I want to know what kind of King you'll be, if your father unexpectedly dies or hands the title of King to you. And I have gained a lot of knowledge of you from your answer." Did he just threaten his father's life? Michael's partly sure that the King threatened Michael's father. "But I must ask one more question. Will you take Ray's grave for him or would you lead him to his grave?" Michael pursed his lips at the question.

–^~◊•∆=∆•◊~^–

Trees.

That's all Michael remembered for a few months. It hurt just remembering everything happening in a span of less than a day.

Helplessness.

Hopelessness.

Restlessness.

He couldn't do anything at all to save him from hurting. Michael could still see them, littered all around his body even when he wore clothes. He felt fully responsible for putting those scars there, no matter how much he declared that it wasn't his fault. Michael always reasoned that he almost got him killed and that he is such a crappy friend. How could anyone want to be his friend? He gets everyone in trouble, in danger and Michael couldn't take it anymore. He had to run. Run from his problems because he didn't know what else to do. He didn't know how to handle problems like this. But when he jumped out his bedroom window with a small bag of stuff he'll most likely need and landed safely on the ground, he didn't want to see him standing there. Not when he was so close to leaving.

"I heard you were leaving." Ray said, disappointed. "You can't run from your problems, Michael."

"You can't stop me from running."

"Who said I was going to stop you? I want to come with you." Ray replied, picking up the bag Michael didn't notice was on the floor. "I'm tired of living in Royalty. Tired of having to live under my father's shadow and him expecting me to take over for him. Making me his personal slave. I don't want to kill any more people, Michael. Please, let me come with you." Ray pleaded and it hit Michael like a pile of bricks. Ray thought that Michael was going to leave him to fend for himself. He wanted to go with him because he didn't want to be alone with a crazed king that wants nothing more than wanting everything for himself.

Michael felt even more guilty for leaving and nodded, "Alright, fine. You can come, but I'm sorry if I--"

Ray raised his hand to silence him, "Michael, you don't have to be sorry anymore. I know what I'm getting into and if I get hurt along the way, then I get hurt. I've already told you many, many times that what happened back in the forest was not your fault. You wouldn't have known that there would be a witch there, hiding and waiting for people like us to wander along her home. You couldn't have known any of the stuff that happened would have happened. I don't blame you for anything. I'll stay by your side, please remember that. You are the only person that I can trust in this world."

He couldn't stop his mind from having the flashback.

*Flashback Start*

"So, do you think this is far enough out?" Michael asked as Ray nodded. "Okay then, let's get started. What's first?"

Ray thought for a moment, "Well, we have to get a few special ingredients to make the potion work." Ray looked behind Michael, then pointed at a house. "Maybe there's some supplies there."

Looking over, Michael replied, "But that's someone's house."

Walking up to it, Ray examined it, "Calm down, it's abandoned. See? All of the trees around it are basically encasing the house in it's vines. Nothing is gonna happen if we just check out what's in it." Michael shrugged as they entered the house and looked through all of the cabinets and drawers, they were filled to the brim with supplies and ingredients for potions. "Michael, we have to get out of here right now." Ray said before grabbing Michael's hand and pulling him out of the house as splash potions broke around them.

"What's happening?"

"Witch." Ray said under his breath, but audible enough for Michael to hear. "We have to leave before we get caught in the splash zone. No pun intended.(Unless it's not a pun, I have no idea anymore...)" A splash potion broke in front of them, forcing them to make a turn. Various potions splashed all around them and they both knew that the witch was intentionally making them lose direction and get lost in the forest. Eventually, they lost the witch and decided that hiding was their best bet right now.

They warily watched their surroundings for any movement and Michael broke the silence, "You should use your powers on the witch." Michael whispered and immediately saw how Ray tensed. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"Well, yes and no. I've just never used it on a human before."

"Witches aren't a human, they're monsters, part of mobs."

"Well, so are we, technically."

"You just have to blind the witch long enough for us to get away. I'll have her distracted while you get ready. There, simple." Michael explained. After a while, Ray nodded and they ran out of their hiding spot in different directions and the witch moved to throw a potion at Michael. Alright, phase one is going well. Michael thought as he dodged the potions successfully. He looked over at Ray to see that he was trying to quickly use Magic to blind the witch.

Though, while he was distracted, the witch threw a potion of poison at Michael and he jumped, but a splash of poison overtook his body and he landed on the ground, heaving for air. "Michael!" Ray yelled, his concentration failing and the witch turned to him.

"Ray, run now!" Michael yelled through gritted teeth. The witch threw a potion of slowness at him and Ray failed to dodge it. He got up and looked up at the witch, who was slowly approaching him. The witch stopped and seemed to look behind Ray before turning to stand next to the poisoned Michael. The Jerz Prince stared behind Ray, wide eyed and watched as a mob of monsters lurked out of the forest. "Ray, don't look behind you. Please don't look behind you. Just-- Just look at me. Don't look anywhere else. Focus on me." Michael tried to coach Ray calmly, but the nervousness in his voice wasn't helping.

"Michael." Ray whimpered as a skeleton shot an arrow at Ray, narrowly missing the York Prince. Ray's breathing picked up and Michael cursed at himself for getting them into this mess -- he felt so useless. Another arrow and this time it went right into Ray's back, making him shout in pain. Zombies came up and started scratching and biting at Ray, who was covering his head and trying his best to still focus on Michael between all the legs of the monsters. Creepers, oh god the creepers, lurked up to Ray and exploded close enough to kill all of the zombies and blow Ray a few meters away. Michael felt responsible, if only he hadn't asked Ray for his help. Of course his best friend would agree to anything he would say.

Ray ran out of strength to even shield himself from the monsters and used all his strength left to look at Michael right in the eyes. Michael could see the pain in his eyes and he wanted to look away, but he was Ray's last hope. The poison was starting to wear off, but then a sudden, crazy idea popped up in his head. "Ray," he called, "the potion, fuse it with your magic!" He instructed as Ray slowly went to get the potion and held the bottle tightly. The orange color of the potion turned into a blood orange and he threw it next to him, all of the monsters around him disintegrating into nothing.

The witch went to throw another potion at Ray, but Michael got up quickly and sliced off the witch's head with his diamond sword. He ran over to Ray, "Hey, you alright?"

Ray nodded, "Carry me, I can't move."

"Big baby."

"I can't." He said, but Michael could tell that he didn't have the strength to make a joke or talk back. So Michael quickly pulled out the arrow stuck in his back -- much to Ray's dismay -- and picked him up, jogging out of the forest and heading back into the safe wall of Jerz, which took two restless days.

*Flashback End*

"Sorry, I just can't ignore what happened. I told you that we could end their lives at the same time, but I almost ended our lives. I was just worried you weren't going to make it."

Ray nodded in agreement, "Well, where to Mogar?" Ray asked, hurrying to change the subject.

"I'd say somewhere where there aren't any witches." Michael suggested as they laughed it off and headed out, leaving their previous lives and entering new ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And currently, I am working on like ten stories and there are some dead stories in my profile, so sorry for that. I just couldn't continue to write them. Also, writer's block isn't helping. Anyway, please please please comment any questions or criticism you have for me! I want to make sure I answer all of your questions in the story and I want to make sure you enjoy this story! Thank you! Also, I'm going to stop the story at the last chapter and continue on a few more origin stories unless they work with what I'm writing next.


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